MY ADVENTURES AS A 
GERMAN SECRET AGENT 



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The Bridgeman H. Taylor passport upon which von der Goltz 

returned to Germany and later went to England. In the 

upper right hand corner is the vise of the American Embassy 

at Berlin. 



My Adventures 

AS A 

German Secret Agent 



BY 

CAPT. HORST VON DER GOLTZ 

Formerly Major in the Mexican Constitutional Army. 

Sometime Confidential Aide to Captain von Papen, 

Recalled Military Attache to the Imperial 

German Embassy at Washington, 

German Secret Agent. 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 
ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY 

1917 



-$' 



Copyright, 1917 

by 

Robert M. McBride & Company 



Published, 1917 

OCT -8 1917 
©CI.A479379 



V 



«|^NE must at times separate 
^"^ a gentleman and a diplomat 
from his official acts performed 
under orders from his home gov- 
ernment, otherwise great confusion 
and injustice will occur. Some 
governments have a little way of 
telling those who represent them 
abroad .... to get such and such 
a thing done, and done it must be. 
Nor would those high Government 
officials at home care often to hear 
painful details of the successful 
execution of many such orders 
which are given." 

from 

"The Strangling of Persia," by W. Morgan Shuster. 



TO THE 
UNITED STATES OF GERMANY — WHEN- 
EVER THEY MAY COME TO BE — I 
DEDICATE THIS BOOK AND MY HOPES. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword . . . 1 

I — I find an old letter, containing a strange bit 
of scandal — and its contents draw me into 
the service of the Kaiser. . . ... .,. . . . . . . .. . 5' 

II — I Impersonate a Russian Prince and steal a 
treaty. What the treaty contained and how 
Germany made use of the knowledge. . . . 2% 

III — Of what comes of leaving important papers 
exposed. I look and talk indiscreetly — and 
a man dies 45 

IV — I am sent to Geneva and learn of a plot. How 
there are more ways of getting rid of a 
King than by blowing him up with dynamite 61 

V — Germany displays an interest in Mexico, and 
aids the United States for her own pur- 
poses. The Japanese-Mexican treaty and 
its share in the downfall of Diaz 88 

VI— 'My letter again. I go to America and become 
a United States soldier. Sent to Mexico 
and sentenced to death there. I join Villa's 
army and gain an undeserved reputation. . Ill 

ix 



Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VII — War. I re-enter the German service and am 
appointed aide to Captain von Papen. The 
German conception of neutrality and how 
to make use of it. The plot against the 
Welland Canal..... 151 

VIII — I go to Germany on a false passport. Italy 
in the early days of the war. I meet the 
Kaiser and talk to him about Mexico and 
the United States 17a 

IX — In England — and how I reached there. I am 
arrested and imprisoned for fifteen months. 
What von Papen's baggage contained. I 
make a sworn statement 190 

X — The German intrigue against the United 
States. Von Papen, Boy-Ed and von 
Rintelen, and the work they did. How the 
German- Americans were used and how they 
were betrayed 213 

XI — More about the German intrigue against the 
United States. German aims in Latin 
America. Japan and Germany in Mexico. 
What happened in Cuba? 236 

XII — The last stand of German intrigue. Ger- 
many's spy system in America. What is 
coming ? 264 

X 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The false passport upon which Capt von der Goltz 
went to England Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Photograph of Capt. von der Goltz taken outside the 

Cuartel at Juarez . . 28 

Raul Madero and his staff 42 

A group of recruits in Villa's Army ...... 42 

Von der Goltz's commission as Major in the Mexican 

Constitutional Army . . . >. 64 

Colonel Trinidad Rodriguez, Capt. von der Goltz's 

first commander, and General Villa .... 88 

General Raul Madero 88 

A telegram from General Villa to Capt. von der 

Goltz 112 

A group of Constitutional soldiers ...... 124 

The six months' leave of absence from the Mexican 
Army, granted to Capt. von der Goltz at the 
outbreak of the European War 140 

A letter of recommendation given to Capt. von der 

Goltz by Raul Madero . . . , 140 

xi 



Illustrations 



FACING 
PAGE 



A letter from Dr. Kraske, German vice-consul at 

New York to "Baron" von der Goltz . . .152 

Captain von Papen's letter to the German consuls at 
Baltimore and St. Paul, asking for their assist- 
ance in Capt. von der Goltz's enterprise . . . 166 

How Capt. von der Goltz secured explosives for his 
Welland Canal Expedition. Two communica- 
tions from Capt. Tauscher 178 

Bills from the du Pont de Nemours Powder Co. for 

"merchandise" furnished Capt. von der Goltz 180 

The check which almost cost Capt. von der Goltz his 

life 196 

Safe Deposit receipts for papers which von der Goltz 

left in Rotterdam 210 

The British order for the deportation of Capt. von 

der Goltz 240 

Photograph of the cover of the British white paper 
containing Capt. von der Goltz's confession . . 256 



Xll 



FOREWORD. 

have not attempted to write an autobiog- 
raphy. This book is merely a summary — a 
sort of galloping summary — of the last ten 
years of my existence. As such, I venture to 
write it because my life has been bound up in 
enterprises in which the world is interested. It 
has been my fortune to be a witness and some- 
times an actor in that drama of secret diplomacy 
which has been going on for so long and which 
in such a large way has been responsible for this 
war. 

There are many scenes from that drama that 
have no place in this book — many events with 
which I am familiar that I have not touched 
upon. My aim has been to describe only those 
things with which I was personally concerned 
and which I know to be true. For a full history 
of the last ten years my readers must go else- 
where; but it is my hope that these adventures 
of mine will bring them to a better understand- 
ing of the forces that have for so long been 
undermining the peace of the world. 

1 



Foreword 

Inevitably there will be some who read this 
book, who will doubt the truth of many of the 
statements in it. I cannot, unfortunately, prove 
all that I tell here. Wherever possible I have 
offered corroborative evidence of the truth of 
my statements; at other times I have tried to 
indicate their credibility by citing well recognized 
facts which have a direct bearing upon my con- 
tentions. But for the rest, I can only hope that 
this book will be accepted as a true record of 
facts which by their very nature are insusceptible 
of proof. 

So far as my connection with the German 
Government is concerned, I may refer the 
curious to the British Parliamentary White 
Papers, Miscellaneous Nos. 6 and 13, which con- 
tain respectively my confession and a record of 
the papers found in the possession of Captain 
von Papen, former military attache to the Ger- 
man Embassy at Washington, and seized by the 
British authorities on January 2 and 3, 1916. 
There are also, in addition to the documents 
reproduced in this book, various court records 
of the trial of Captain Hans Tauscher and others 
in the spring of the same year. Of German 
activities in the United States, the newspapers 
bear eloquent testimony. I have been concerned 

2 



Foreword 

rather with the motives of the German Govern- 
ment than with a statement of what has been 
done. These motives, I believe, you will not 
doubt. 

But there is one point which I must ask my 
readers not to overlook. I have told that I be- 
came a secret agent through the discovery of a 
certain letter which contained very serious re- 
flections upon one of the most important person- 
ages in the world. I have told, also, how the 
possession of that letter had an important bear- 
ing upon the course of my life — how it led me 
to America, and how in the struggle for its pos- 
session, I very nearly lost my life. This, I know, 
will be severely questioned by many. Before 
rejecting this part of my story, I ask merely that 
you consider the fate that overtook Koglmeier, 
the saddler of El Paso, whose only crime was 
that he had been partially in my confidence. I 
ask you to recall that another German, Lesser, 
who had been associated with me at the same 
time, mysteriously disappeared in 1915, shortly 
before von Papen left for Europe. No one has 
been able to prove why these men were treated as 
they were. And if I did not have in my posses- 
sion something which the German Government 
regarded as highly important, why the surprising 

8 



Foreword 

actions of that Government, actions none the less 
astonishing because they are well known and 
authenticated? Consider these things before you 
doubt. 

Finally, let me say that I have taken the liberty 
of changing or omitting the names of various 
people who are mentioned in these adventures, 
merely because I have had no wish to compromise 
them by disclosing their identity. 




New York, July 8, 1917. 



ERRATA 

Page 5. Chapter I. First line: 
March 28th, 1917 should read March 29th, 1916. 

Page 41: 
Kut el Amerara should read Kut el Amara. 

Page 140. Last two paragraphs: 
December 23rd should read December 20th. 

Page 171. Second paragraph: 
October 8th should read October 3rd, 1914- 



My Adventures as a German 
Secret Agent 

CHAPTER I 

I find an old letter, containing a strange 

bit of scandal — and its contents draw me into 

the service of the Kaiser, 

(\N March 28th, 1917, the steamer Finland was 
warped into its Hudson River dock and I 
hurried down the gang plank. I was not alone. 
Agents of the United States Department of 
Justice had met me at Quarantine; and a man 
from Scotland Yard was there also — a man who 
had attended me sedulously since, barely two 
weeks before, I had been released under rather 
unusual circumstances from Lewes prison in 
England; the last of four English prisons in 
which I had spent fifteen months in solitary con- 
finement waiting for the day of my execution. 

My friend from Scotland Yard left me very 
shortly; soon after, I was testifying for the 
United States Government against Capt. Hans 

5 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Tauscher, husband of Mme. Johanna Gadski, the 
diva. Tauscher, American agent of the Krupps 
and of the German Government, was charged 
with complicity in a plot to blow up the Welland 
Canal in Canada during the first month of the 
Great War. During the course of the trial it 
was shown that von Papen and others (including 
myself) had entered into a conspiracy to violate 
the neutrality of die United States. I had led 
the expedition against the Welland Canal and I 
was telling everything I knew about it. Doubt- 
less you remember the newspapers of die day. 

You will remember how, at that time, the 
magnitude of the German plot against the neu- 
trality of the United States became finally ap- 
parent. You will remember how, in connection 
with my exposure came the exposure of von Igel, 
of Rintelen, of the German Consul-General at 
San Francisco, Bopp, and many others. With all 
of these men I was familiar. In the activities of 
some of them I was implicated. It was I, as I 
have said, who planned the details of the Welland 
Canal plot. I shall tell the true story of these 
activities later on. 

But first let me tell the story of how I became 
to be concerned in these plots — and to do that 
I must go back over many years ; I must tell how 

6 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

I first became a member of the Kaiser's Secret 
Diplomatic Force (to give it a name) and in- 
cidentally I shall describe for the first time the 
real workings of that force. 

I have been in and out of the Kaiser's web for 
ten years. I have served him faithfully in many 
capacities and in many places — all over Europe, 
in Mexico, even in the United States. I served 
the German Government as long as I believed it 
to be representing the interests of my country- 
men. But from the moment that I became con- 
vinced that the men who made up the Govern- 
ment — the Hohenzollerns, the Junkers and the 
bureaucrats — were anxious merely to preserve 
their own power, even at the expense of Germany 
itself, my attitude toward them changed. That 
is why I write this book — and why I shall tell 
what I know of the aims and ambitions of these 
men — enemies of Germany as well as of the rest 
of the world. 

I was not a spy; nor was I a secret service 
agent. I was, rather, a secret diplomatic agent. 
Let me add that there is a nice distinction be- 
tween the three. A secret diplomatic agent is a 
man who directs spies, who studies their reports, 
who pieces together various bits of information, 

7 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

and who, when he has the fabric complete, per- 
sonally makes his report to the highest authority 
or carries that particular plan to its desired con- 
clusion. His work and his status are of various 
sorts. Unlike the spy, he is a user, not a getter, 
of information. He is a free lance, responsible 
only to the Foreign Office; a plotter; an un- 
official intermediary in many negotiations; and 
frequently he differs from an accredited diplo- 
matic representative, only in that his activities 
and his office are essentially secret. Obviously 
men of this type must be highly trained and re- 
liable; and their constant association with men 
of authority makes it necessary that they, them- 
selves, be men of breeding and education. But 
above all, they must possess the courage that 
shrinks at no danger, and a devotion, a patriot- 
ism that knows no scruples. 

This, then, was the calling into which I found 
myself plunged, while still a boy, by one of the 
strangest chances that ever befell me, whose life 
has been full of strange happenings. 

As I recall my adolescence I realize that I was 
a normal boy, vigorous, wilful, fond of sport, of 
horses, dogs and guns, and I know that but for 
the chance I speak of, I should have grown up 
to the traditions of our family — Cadet school— 

8 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

the University — later a lieutenancy in the Ger- 
man Army — and to-day, perhaps, death "some- 
where in France." 

And yet, in that boyhood that I am recalling, 
I can remember that there were other interests 
which were far greater than the games that I 
loved, as did all lads of my age. Mental ad- 
venture, the matching of wits against wits for 
stakes of reputation and fortune, always ex- 
ercised an uncanny fascination over my mind. 
That delight in intrigue was shown by the books 
I read as a boy. In the library of my father's 
house there were many novels, books of poems, 
of biography, travel, philosophy and history; but 
I passed them by unread. His few volumes of 
court gossip and so-called "secret history" I 
seized with avidity. I used to bear off the 
memoirs of Marechal Richelieu, the Cardinal's 
nephew, and read them in my room when the 
rest of the household was asleep. 

I recall, too, that there was another tendency 
already developed in me. I see it in my dealings 
with other boys of that day. It was the impulse 
to make other people my instruments, not by 
direct command or appeal, but by leading them 
to do, apparently for themselves, what I needed 
of them. 

9 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Such was I, when my aunt who had cared for 
me since the death of my parents some years 
before, fell ill and later died. I was disconsolate 
for a time and wandered about through the halls 
and chambers of the house, seeking amusement. 
And it was thus that one day I came upon an old 
chest in the room that had been hers. I remem- 
bered that chest. There were letters in it — letters 
that had been written to her by friends made in 
the old days when she was at court. Often she 
had read me passages from them — bits of gossip 
about this or that personage whom she had once 
known — occasionally, even, mention of the 
Kaiser. 

Doubtless, too, I thought, there were passages 
which she had not seen fit to read to me: some 
more intimate bits of gossip about those brilliant 
men and women in Berlin whom I then knew 
only as names. With the eager curiosity of a 
boy I sought the key, and in a moment had un- 
locked the chest. 

There they lay, those neat, faded bundles, 
slightly yellow, addressed in a variety of hands. 
Idly I selected a packet and glanced over the 
envelopes it contained, lingering, in anticipation 
of the revelations that might be in them. I must 
have read a dozen letters before my eye fell upon 

10 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

the envelope that so completely changed my life. 

It lay in a corner of the chest, as if hidden 
from too curious eyes — a yellow square of paper, 
distinguished from its fellows by the quality of 
the stationery alone, and by its appearance of 
greater age. But I knew, before I had read fifty 
words of it, that I was holding in my hands a 
document that was more explosive than dyna- 
mite! 

For this letter, written to my aunt years 
before, by one of the most exalted personages in 
all of Germany, contained statements which, had 
they been made by any one else, would have been 
treason to utter, and which cast the most serious 
doubts upon the legitimacy of the Kaiser 3 
Wilhelm II. 

I realize fully that what I have written will 
seem grossly improbable to most of my readers. 
I know that few persons will believe me- And 
since I cannot prove what I have said, since the 
letter is no longer in my possession, I can ask 
you only to consider the facts and to weigh for 
yourself the probabilities of my statement. 

Those of you whose memories go back to the 
last twenty years of the nineteenth century, will 
readily recall the notorious ill-feeling that ex- 
isted between Wilhelm II and his mother, Vic- 

1U 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

toria, the Dowager Empress Friederich. Stories 
have too often been told of this enmity, culmin- 
ating in the virtual banishment from Berlin of 
the Queen Mother, for me to need do more than 
mention them. But what is not so generally 
known is the small esteem in which Victoria was 
held by the entire German people. During the 
twenty years of her married life as the wife of 
the then Crown Prince Friederich, she was 
treated by Berlin society with the most thinly- 
veiled hostility. Even Bismarck made no at- 
tempt to conceal his dislike for her, and accused 
her — to quote his own words — of having "poison- 
ed the fountain of Hohenzollern blood at its 
source.'* 

Victoria, for her part, although she seems to 
have had no animosity toward the German 
people, certainly possessed little love for her 
eldest son, and did her best to delay his ascension 
to the Imperial throne as long as she could. 
When in 1888 Wilhelm I was dying, she tried 
her utmost to secure the succession to her hus- 
band, who was then lying dangeously ill at San 
Remo. "Cancer," the physicians pronounced the 
trouble, and even the great German specialist, 
Bergman, agreed with their diagnosis. There 
is a law that prevents any one with an incurable 

12 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

disease, such as cancer, from ascending the 
Prussian throne; but Victoria knew too well the 
attitude of her son, Wilhelm, toward herself, not 
to wish to do everything in her power to prevent 
him from becoming Emperor so long as she 
could. In her extremity she appealed to her 
mother, Queen Victoria of England, who sent 
Mackenzie, the great English surgeon, to San 
Remo to report on Friederich's condition. 
Mackenzie opposed Bergman and said the dis- 
ease was not cancer; and the physicians inserted 
a silver tube in Friederich's throat, and in due 
course he became Emperor Friederich III. 

But in spite of Mackenzie and the silver tube, 
Friederich III died after a reign of ninety-eight 
days — and he died of cancer. 

Now what was the reason for this hostility be- 
tween mother and son and between Empress and 
subjects? There have been many answers given 
— Victoria's love for England, her collossal lack 
of tact, her impatient unconventionality. Berlin 
whispered of a dinner in Holland years before, 
when Victoria had entertained some English 
people she met there — people she had never seen 
before — and had finished her repast by smoking 
a cigar. That in the days when the sight of a 
woman smoking horrified the German soul ! And 

13 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Berlin hinted at worse unconventionalities than 
this. 

As for the animosity of the Kaiser, that was 
attributed to the fact that he held her responsible 
for his withered left arm. 

Plausible reasons, all of these, and possibly 
true. But consider, if you will, the rumors that 
followed Victoria all her life — the story of an 
early attachment to the Count Seckendorf, her 
husband's associate during the Seven Weeks' 
War of 1866 — the reports, sometimes denied but 
generally believed, of her marriage to the Count 
not long before her death. Consider, too, the 
dissimilarity between the Kaiser and the other 
men of his race — big, slow-minded, amiable men 
— so unlike Wilhelm II, with his aggressive, 
alert personality, his quick mind and his Pied- 
montese face. And can you not imagine the 
attitude of a woman who had been guilty of in- 
fidelity and yet retained her sense of national 
lonor — the hesitancy she might feel at seeing the 
child of this infidelity upon the throne, and so 
perpetrating a gigantic fraud upon a people and 
a husband whom she respected if she did not 
love ? And have not women been known to hate, 
rather than love, the offspring of a guilty union? 

True or not, these suppositions — what does it 
14 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

matter? You can see, can you not, why I be- 
lieved that my letter told the truth, and why I 
knew that here was a plaything which would 
astound the world, if made public? 

But what to do with this letter to which I 
attached so much importance? Something im- 
pelled me not to speak of it to my family. But 
who else was there? 

In my perplexity I did an utterly foolish thing. 
I put my whole confidence in a man's word. 
There was, serving at a nearby fortress, a 
General Major von Dassel, who was in the habit 
of coming to our house quite regularly. To him 
I went, and under pledge of silence I told him 
my story. Of course, he broke the pledge and 
left immediately for Berlin. All doubts, if I had 
any, as to the importance of the document 
vanished with him. And if I had any misgivings 
concerning my own importance they quickly 
vanished, too. Back from Berlin, with General 
Major von Dassel came an agent of the Reichs 
Kanzler. He did not come to our house ; instead 
von Dassel sent for me to go to his headquarters 
in the fortress. I met there a solemn frock-coated 
personage who, so he said, had come down from 
Berlin especially to see me. Imagine my elation I 
I was in my element ; what I had hoped for had 

15 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

at last happened. The pages of Richelieu and 
of my secret histories were coming true. An- 
other man and I were to lock our wits in a fight 
to the finish — that pleasure I promised myself. 
He was a worthy opponent, an official, a pro- 
fessional intriguer. As I looked into his serious, 
bearded face, I built romances about him. 

The agent of the Chancellor wanted my docu- 
ment and my pledge to keep silent about its con- 
tents. Through sheer love of combat, I refused 
him on both points. He tried persuasion and 
reason. I was adamant. He tried cajolery. 

"It is plain," he said, in a voice that was caress- 
ingly agreeable, "that you are an extremely 
clever young man. I have never before met your 
like — that is, at your age. A great career will be 
possible to such a young man if only he shows 
himself eager to serve his government, eager to 
meet the wishes of his Chancellor." 

Of course, I was delighted with this flattery, 
which I felt was entirely deserved. I began to 
believe that I was a person of importance. I 
became stubborn — which always has been one of 
my best and worst traits. I saw that the gentle- 
man in the frock-coat was becoming angry; his 
serious eyes flashed. Apparently much against 
his will, he tried threats; he suavely pointed out 

16 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

that if I persisted in my resolve not to turn over 
the document, destruction yawned at my feet. 
The threats touched off the fuse of my romanti- 
cism. I felt I was leading the life of intrigue of 
which I had read. 

"If you will wait here," I told him, "I shall go 
home and get the document for you." 

The Chancellor's representative stroked his 
beard, deliberated a moment and seemed un- 
certain. 

"Oh, the Junge will come back all right," 
put in the General Major von Dassel. But the 
Junge did not come back. My family had 
always been excessively liberal with money, and 
I had enough in my own little "war chest" to buy 
a railroad ticket, and a considerable amount be- 
sides. So I promptly ran off to Paris; and to 
this day I don't know how long the gentleman 
in the frock-coat waited for me in von Dassel's 
office. 

The terrors and thrills and delight of that 
panic stricken flight still make me smile. No 
peril I have since been through was half as ex- 
citing. . . Berlin! . . . Koln! . . . Brussels! 
It was a race against apprehension. I was 
happily frightened, much as a colt is, when it 
shies at its own shadow. Although I was in long 

17 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

trousers and looked years older than I was, I had 
not sense enough to see the affair in its true light 
■ — a foolish escapade which was quite certain to 
have disagreeable consequences. And so I fled 
from Berlin to Paris. 

From Paris I fled, too. There, any circum- 
stance struck my fevered imagination as being 
suspicious. After a day in the French capital, I 
scurried south to Nice and from Nice to Monte 
Carlo. Precocious youngster, indeed, for there 
I had my first experience with that favored figure 
of the novelist, the woman secret agent. No 
novelist, I venture to say, would ever have picked 
her out of the Riviera crowd as being what she 
was. She wore no air of mystery; and though 
attractive enough in a quiet way, she was very 
far from the siren type in looks or manners. The 
friendliness that she, a woman of the mid-thirties, 
showed a lonely boy was perfectly natural. I 
should never have guessed her to be an agent of 
the Wilhelmstrasse had she not chosen to let me 
know it. Of course, the moment she spoke to 
me of "my document," I knew she had made my 
acquaintance with a purpose. If the dear old 
frock-coated agent of the Chancellor had been 
asleep, the telegraph wires from Berlin to Paris 
and Nice and Monte Carlo had been quite awake, 

18 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

The proof that I was actually watched and 
waited for thrilled me anew. It also alarmed me 
when my friend explained how deeply my govern- 
ment was affronted. Soon the alarm outgrew 
the thrill and in the end I quite broke down. Then 
the woman in her, touched with pity, appar- 
ently displaced the adventuress. We took counsel 
together and she showed me a way out. 

"Your document," she said, "has a Russian as 
well as a German importance. Why not try 
Petersburg since Berlin is hostile? For the sake 
of what you bring, Russia might give shelter and 
protection." 

Remember, I was very young and she was all 
kindness. Yes, she discovered for me the avenue 
of escape and she set my foot upon it in the most 
motherly way. And I unknowingly took my first 
humble lesson in the great art of intrigue. For 
as I learned years afterwards, that woman was 
not a German agent but a Russian! 

But at that time I was all innocent gratitude 
for her kindness. I was thankful enough to pro- 
ceed to Petersburg by way of Italy, Constanti- 
nople and Odessa. Of course, she must have 
designated a man unknown to me to travel with 
me, and make sure that I reached the Russian 
capital. To my hotel in Petersburg, just as the 

19 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

woman had predicted, came an officer of the 
political police, who courteously asked me not 
to leave the building for twenty-four hours. The 
next day the man from the Okrana came again. 
This time he had a droshky waiting, with one of 
those bull-necked, blue corduroy-robed, muscular 
Russian jehus on the box. We were driven 
down the Nevsky-Prospect to a palace. Here I 
soon found myself in the presence of a man I did 
not then know as Count Witte. He greeted me 
kindly, merely remarking that he had heard I 
was in some difficulties, and offering me aid and 
advice. My letter was not referred to and the 
interview ended. 

So began the process of drawing me out. A 
fortnight later the matter of my information was 
broached openly and the suggestion was made 
that if I delivered it to the Russian Government, 
high officials would be friendly and a career as- 
sured me in Russia, as I grew up. But by that 
time Germany had changed her attitude. Her 
agents also reached me in St. Petersburg. From 
them I received new assurance of the importance 
of the document. If I would release it — so the 
German agent who came to my hotel told me — 
and keep my tongue still, Berlin would pardon 
my indiscretion and assure me a career at home. 

20 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Russia or Germany? My decision was quickly 
made. That very night I was smuggled out of 
Petersburg and whisked across the frontier at 
Alexandrovna, into Germany; and the letter 
passed out of my hands — for the time being. 



CHAPTER II. 

2" Impersonate a Russian Prince and 

steal a treaty. What the treaty contained and 

how Germany made use of the knowedge. 

QROSS LICHTERFELDE! As I write, 
it all comes back to me clearly, in spite of 
the full years that have passed — this, my first 
home in Berlin. A huge pile of buildings set in 
a suburb of the city, grim and military in ap- 
pearance ; and in fact, as I soon discovered. 

I was to become a cadet, it seems; and where 
in Germany could one receive better training 
than in this same Gross Lichterfelde? 

At home I had had some small experience with 
the exactions of the gymnasium; but now I 
found that this was but so much child's play in 
comparison to the life at Gross Lichterfelde. 
We were drilled and dragooned from morning 
till night: mathematics, history, the languages — 
they were not taught us, they were literally 
pounded into us. And the military training! I 
am not unfamiliar with the curricula of Sand- 

22 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

hurst, of St. Cyr, even of West Point, but I 
honestly believe that the training we had to 
undergo was fully as arduous and as technical as 
at any of those schools. And we were only boys. 

Military strategy and tactics; sanitation; en- 
gineering; chemistry; in fact, any and every 
study that could conceivably be of use to these 
future officers of the German Army; to all of 
these must we apply ourselves with the utmost 
diligence. And woe to the student who shirked! 

Then there was the endless drilling, that left us 
with sore muscles and minds so worn with the 
monotony of it that we turned even to our 
studies with relief. And the supervision! Our 
very play was regulated. 

Can you wonder that we hated it and likened 
the cadet school to a prison? And can you 
imagine how galling it was to me, who had come 
to Berlin seeking romance and found drudgery? 

But we learned. Oh, yes. The war has shown 
how well we learned. 

There was one relief from the constant study 
which was highly prized by all the cadets at Gross 
Lichterfelde. It was the custom to select from 
our school a number of youths to act as pages 
at the Imperial court; and lucky were the ones 
who were detailed to this service. It meant a 

23 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

vacation, at the very least, to say nothing of a 
change from the Spartan fare of the cadet school. 
I must have been a student for a full three 
months before my turn came; long enough, at 
any rate, for me to receive the news of my selec- 
tion with the utmost delight. But I had not been 
on service at the Imperial Palace for more than 
a few days when a state dinner was given in 
honor of a guest at court. He was a young 
prince of a certain grand-ducal house, which by 
blood was half Russian and half German. I 
recall the appearance of myself and the other 
pages, as we were dressed for the function. 
Ordinarily we wore a simple undress cadet uni- 
form, but that evening a striking costume was 
provided : nothing less than a replica of the garb 
of a mediaeval herald — tabard and all — for 
Wilhelm II has a flair for the feudal. From my 
belt hung a capacious pouch, which, pages of 
longer standing than I assured me, was the most 
important part of my equipment; since by cus- 
tom the ladies were expected to keep these 
pouches comfortably filled with sweetmeats. 
Candy for a cadet! No wonder every boy wel- 
comed his turn at page duty, and went back re- 
luctantly to the asceticism of Gross Lichterfelde. 
That was my first sight of an Imperial dinner. 
24 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

The great banquet hall that overlooks the square 
on the Uf er, was ablaze with lights. The guests — 
the men in their uniforms even more than the 
women — made a brilliant spectacle to the eyes of 
a youngster from the provinces; but most bril- 
liant of all was Wilhelm II, resplendent in the 
full dress uniform of a field marshal. I can 
recall him as he sat there, lordly, arrogant, yet 
friendly, but never seeming to forget the 
monarch in the host. It seemed to me that he 
loved to disconcert a guest with his remarks; it 
delighted him to set the table laughing at some 
one's else expense. 

By chance, during the banquet, it fell to me 
to render service to the young prince. Once, as 
I moved behind his chair, a German Princess ex- 
claimed, "Oh, doesn't the page resemble his 
Highness ?" 

The Kaiser looked at me sharply. 

"Yes," he agreed, "they might well be twins." 
Then, impulsively lifting up his glass, he 
flourished it toward the Russo-German prince 
and drank to him. 

That was all there was to the incident — then. 
I returned to Gross Lichterfelde the next morn- 
ing, and proceeded to think no more of the 
matter. Nor did it come to my mind when a few 

25 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

weeks later, I was suddenly summoned to Berlin, 
and driven, with one of my instructors, to a 
private house in a street I did not know. ( It was 
the Wilhelmstrasse, and the residence stood next 
to Number 75, the Foreign Office. It was the 
house Berlin speaks of as Samuel Meyer's Bude 
■ — in other words, the private offices of the 
Chancellor and His Imperial Majesty.) 

We entered a room, bare save for a desk or 
two and a portrait of Wilhelm I., where my 
escort surrendered me to an official, who silently 
surveyed me, comparing his observations with a 
paper he held, which apparently contained my 
personal measurements. Later a photograph 
was taken of me, and then I was bidden to wait. 
I waited for several hours, it seemed to me, be- 
fore a second official appeared — a large, round- 
faced man, soldierly despite his stoutness — who 
greeted my escort politely and, taking a photo- 
graph from his pocket, proceeded to scrutinize 
me carefully. After a moment he turned to my 
escort. 

"Has he any identifying marks on his body?" 
he asked. 

My escort assured him that there were none. 

"Good!" he exclaimed; and a moment later we 
were driving back toward Gross Lichterfelde — I 

26 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

quite at sea about the whole affair, but not daring 
to ask questions about it. Idle curiosity was not 
encouraged among cadets. 

I was not to remain in ignorance for long, 
however. A few days later I was ordered to 
pack my clothing, and with it was transferred to 
a quiet hotel on the Dorotheen Strasse. The 
hotel was not far from the War Academy, and 
there I was placed under the charge of an ex- 
asperatingly puttering tutor, who strove to per- 
fect me on but three points. He insisted that my 
French be impeccable; he made me study the 
private and detailed history of a certain Russian 
house ; and he was most particular about the way 
I walked and ate, about my knowledge of Rus- 
sian ceremonies and customs — in a word, about 
my deportment in general. 

The weeks passed. At last, by dint of much 
hard work, I became sufficiently expert in my 
studies to satisfy my tutor. I was taken back to 
the house on the Wilhelmstrasse, where the 
round-faced man again inspected me. He talked 
with me at length in French, made me walk 
before him and asked me innumerable questions 
about the family history of the house I had been 
studying. Finally he drew a photograph from 



27 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

his pocket — the same, I fancy, which had figured 
in our previous interview. 

"Do you recognize this face?" he inquired, 
offering me the picture. 

I started. It might have been my own like- 
ness. But no! That uniform was never mine. 
Then in a moment I realized the truth and with 
the realization the whole mystery of the last few 
weeks began to be clear to me. The photograph 

was a portrait of the young Prince Z ; my 

double, whom I had served at the banquet. 

"It is a very remarkable likeness," said the 
round-faced man. "And it will be of good service 
to the Fatherland." 

He eyed me for a moment impressively before 
continuing. 

"You are to go to Russia," he told me. 

"Prince Z has been invited to visit his family 

in St. Petersburg, and he has accepted the invita- 
tion. But unfortunately Prince Z has dis- 
covered that he cannot go. You will, therefore 
become the Prince — for the time being. You 
will visit your family, note everything that 
is said to you and report to your tutor, Herr 

, who will accompany you and give you 

further instructions. 

"This is an important mission," he added 
28 




This photograph, taken outside the Cuartel at Juarez, Mexico, 

shows von der Goltz (at the right), then a Major in the 

Mexican Army, and Lieut. Leiva, a Mexican officer later 

reported killed in battle. 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

solemnly, "but I have no doubt that you will com- 
port yourself satisfactorily. You have been 
taught everything that is necessary; and you 
have already shown yourself a young man of 
spirit and some discretion. We rely upon both 
of these qualities." He bowed in dismissal of 
us, but as we turned to go he spoke again. 

"Remember," he was saying. "From this day 
you are no longer a cadet. You are a prince. 
Act accordingly." 

That was all. We were out of the door and 
halfway to our hotel before I realized to the full 
the great adventure I had embarked upon. Em- 
barked? Shanghaied would be the better term. 
I had had no choice in the matter, whatsoever. I 
had not even uttered a word during the interview. 

At any rate, that night I left for Petrograd — 
still St. Petersburg at that time — accompanied 
by my tutor and two newly engaged valets, who 
did not know the real Prince. Of what was 
ahead I had no idea, but as my tutor had no 
doubts of the success of our mission, I wasted 
little time in speculating upon the future. 

What the real prince's motive was in agreeing 
to the masquerade, and where he spent his time 
while I was in Russia, I have never been able to 
discover. From what followed, I surmise that 

29 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

he was strongly pro-German in his sympathies 
but distrusted his ability to carry through the 
task in hand. 

In St. Petersburg I discovered that my 
"relatives" — whom I had known to be very 
exalted personages — were inclined to be more 
than hospitable to this young kinsman whom 
they had not seen in a long time. I found myself 
petted and spoiled to a delightful degree ; indeed 
I had a truly princely time. The only drawback 
was that, as the constant admonitions of my 
tutor reminded me, I could spend my princely 
wealth only in such ways as my — shall I say, 
predecessor? — would have done. He, alas, was 
apparently a graver youth than I. 

So two weeks passed, while I was beginning to 
wish that the masquerade would continue in- 
definitely, when one day my tutor sent for me. 

"So," he said, "We have had play enough, not 
so? Now we shall have work." 

In a few words he explained the situation to 
me. Russia, it seemed, was about to enter into an 
agreement with England, regarding what ap- 
peared to be practically a partitioning of Persia. 

Already a certain Baron B (let me call him) 

was preparing to leave St. Petersburg with in- 
structions to find out under what circumstances 

30 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

the British Government would enter into pour- 
parlers on the subject. Berlin, whose interests 
in the Near East would be menaced by such an 
agreement, needed information — and delay. I 
was to secure both. It was the old trick of using 
a little instrument to clog the mechanism of a 
great machine. 

Let me explain here a feature of the drawing 
up of international treaties and agreements 
which, I think, is not generally understood. Most 
of us who read in the newspapers that such and 
such a treaty is being arranged between the repre- 
sentatives of two countries, believe that the 
terms are even then being decided upon. As a 
matter of fact these terms have long since been 
determined by other representatives of the two 
countries concerned, and the present meeting 
is merely for the formal and public ratification 
of a treaty that has already been secretly made. 
The usual stages in the making of a treaty 
are three: First, an unofficial inquiry by one 
government into the willingness or unwilling- 
ness of the other government to enter into 
a discussion of the question at issue. This 
is usually done by a man who has no official 
standing as a diplomat at the moment, but whose 
affiliations with officials in the second country 

31 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

have given him an influence there which will 
stand his government in good stead. After a 
willingness has been expressed by both sides to 
enter into discussions, official pourparlers are 
held in which the terms of the agreement are 
discussed and decided upon. Finally the treaty 
is formally ratified by the Foreign Ministers or 
special envoys of the countries involved. This 
secrecy in the first two stages is necessitated by 
the fear of meddling on the part of other govern- 
ments, and also by a desire on the part of any 
country making overtures to avoid a possible 
rebuff from the other; and it explains why nego- 
tiations which are publicly entered into never fail. 

But to return to my adventures. My Govern- 
ment had learned of the impending pourparlers 
between Britain and Russia; it knew that Baron 
B 's instructions would contain the con- 
ditions which Russia considered desirable. What 
was necessary was to secure these instructions. 

Now, my tutor had, long before this, seen to 
it that I should be on friendly terms with various 
members of the baron's household; and he had 
been especially insistent that I pay a good deal 
of attention to the young daughter of the house, 
whom I shall call Nevshka. I had wondered 
at the time why he should do this ; but I obeyed 

32 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

his instructions with alacrity. Nevshka was 
charming. 

Now I saw the purpose of this carefully fos- 
tered friendship. 

"The baron will spend this evening at the 
club," I was informed. "He will return, accord- 
ing to his habit, promptly at twelve. You will 
visit his house this evening, paying a call upon 
Nevshka. You will contrive to set back the 
clock so that his home coming will be in the 
nature of a surprise to her. The hour will be so 
late that she, knowing her father's strictness, will 
contrive to get you out of the house without his 
seeing you. That is your opportunity! You 
must slip from the salon into the rear hall — but 
do not leave the house. And if, young man, with 
such an opportunity, you cannot discover where 
these papers are hidden and secure them, you are 
unworthy of the trust that your government has 
placed in you." 

I nodded my comprehension. In other words 
I was to take advantage of Nevshka's friendship 
in order to steal from her father — I was to per- 
form an act from which no gentleman could help 
shrinking. And I was going to do it with no 
more qualms of conscience than, in time of war, 



33 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

I should have felt about stealing from an enemy- 
general the plan of an attack. 

For countries are always at war — diplomati- 
cally. There is always a conflict between the 
foreign ambitions of governments; always an 
attempt on the part of each country to gain its 
own ends by fair means or foul. Every man 
engaged in diplomatic work knows this to be 
true. And he will serve his government without 
scruple, for well he knows that some seemingly 
dishonorable act of his may be the means of 
averting that actual warfare which is only the 
forlorn hope that governments resort to when 
diplomatic means of mastery have failed. 

So I undertook my mission with no hesitation, 
rather with a thrill of eagerness. I pretended to 
be violently interested in Nevshka (no difficult 
task, that) and time sped by so merrily that even 
had I not turned back the hands of the clock, I 
doubt if the lateness of the hour would have 
seriously concerned either of us. Oh, yes, my 
tutor — who, as you of course have guessed by 
now, was no mere tutor — had analyzed the situ- 
ation correctly. 

As the baron was heard at the door, I drew 
out my watch. 



34 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

"Nevshka, your clock is slow. It is already 
midnight." 

Nevshka started. 

"Come!" she exclaimed. "Father must not 
see you. He would be furious at your being 
here at this hour." In a panic she glanced about 
the salon. "Go out that way." And she pointed 
to a door at the rear, one that opened on a dimly 
lit hallway. 

I went. I heard the baron express his surprise 
that Nevshka was still awake. I heard her lie — 
beautifully, I assure you. And I remained hid- 
den while the baron worked in his library for 
a while; hardly daring to breathe until I heard 
him go up the stairs to his bedroom. 

He was a careless man, the baron. Or perhaps 
he had been reading Poe, and believed that the 
most obvious place of concealment was the safest. 
At any rate, there in a drawer of his desk, pro- 
tected only by the most defenseless of locks, were 
the papers — a neat statement of the terms upon 
which Russia would discuss this Persian matter 
with England. 

I returned home with my prize, to find my 
tutor awaiting me. He said no word of com- 
mendation when I gave him the papers, but I 
knew by his expression that he was well pleased 

35 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

with my work. And I went to bed, delighted 
with myself, and dreaming of the great things 
that were to come. 

The next day we left Petersburg. A German 
resident of the city had telephoned my relatives, 
warning them that a few cases of cholera had 
appeared. Would it not, he suggested (Oh, it 
was mere kind thoughtfulness on his part) be 
best to let the young prince return to Germany 
until the danger was over? His parents would 
be worried. Indeed, it would be best, my 
"relatives" agreed. So with regret they bade 
leave of me; and in the most natural manner in 
the world I returned to Berlin. 

Wilhelmstrasse 76 again! The round-faced 
man again, but this time less military, less un- 
bending, in his manner. I had done well, he told 
me. My exploit had attracted the favorable 
attention of a very exalted personage. If I could 
hold my tongue — who knows what might be in 
store for me ? 

That was the end of the matter, so far as I 
was concerned. But in the history of European 
politics it was only the beginning of the chapter. 

It might be well, at this point, to recall the 
political situation in Europe, as it affected Eng- 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

land, Russia and Germany at this time. Even 
two years before — in 1905 — it had become evi- 
dent to all students of international affairs that 
the next great conflict, whenever it should come, 
would be between England and Germany; and 
England realizing this, had already begun to 
seek alliances which would stand between her and 
German ambitions of world dominance. : The 
Entente with France had been the first step in 
the formation of protective friendships; and 
although this friendship had suffered a strain 
during the Russo-Japanese War, because of the 
opposing sympathies of the two countries, the 
end of the war healed all differences. The de- 
feat of Russia removed all immediate danger 
of a Slavic menace against India. To England, 
then, the weakened condition of Russia offered 
an excellent opportunity for an alliance that 
would draw still more closely the "iron ring 
around Germany." Immediately she took the 
first steps leading toward this alliance. 

Now, Russia stood badly in need of two 
things. War-torn and threatened by revolution, 
the government could rehabilitate itself only by 
a liberal amount of money. But where to get it? 
France, her ally, and normally her banker, was 
slow, in this instance to lend — and it was only 

37 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

through England's intervention that the Gzar 
secured from a group of Paris and London bank- 
ers the money with which to finance his govern- 
ment and defeat the revolution. 

But more than money, Russia needed an ice- 
free seaport to take the place of Port Arthur, 
which she had lost; and for this there were only 
two possible choices: Constantinople or a port 
on the Persian Gulf. In either of these aims she 
was opposed by Britain, the traditional enemy 
of a Russian Constantinople, on the one hand, 
and the possessor of a considerable "sphere of 
interest" in the Persian Gulf on the other. 

So matters stood, when in August, 1907, hut 
a few weeks after my masquerade. Sir Arthur 
Nicholson, acting for England, and Alexander 
Iswolsky, acting for Russia, signed the famous 
Anglo-Russian Agreement, providing for the 
distribution of Persia into three strips, the 
northern and southern of which would be re- 
spectively Russian and British zones of influ- 
ence; providing also, in a secret clause, that 
Russia would give England military aid in the 
event of a war between Germany and England! 

Meantime what was Germany doing? 

She had, you may be sure, no intention of 
allowing England to best her in the game of 

38 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

intrigue. Her interests in the Near East were 
commercial rather than military; but she could 
not see them threatened by an Anglo-Russian 
occupation of Persia, such as the Agreement 
portended. Then, too, she was bound to con- 
sider the possible effect on Turkey, in whom she 
was taking an ever-increasing (and none too 
altruistic) interest. 

The details of what followed I can only sur- 
mise. I know that in the time between my trip 
to Russia and the signing of that Agreement, on 
August 31, the Kaiser held two conferences: one 
on August 3, with the Czar at Swinemunde; the 
other on August 14, with Edward VII, at the 
Castle of Wilhelmshohe. And when, on Septem- 
ber 24th, the terms were published, they were 
bitterly attacked by a portion of the English 
press, not so much because of the danger to 
Persia, as because of the fact that Russia got the 
best of the bargain!* 

Had the Kaiser succeeded in having these 
terms changed? Who knows? Certainly one 
can trace the hand of German diplomacy in the 
events of the next seven years, most of which are 



*You will find an interesting account of the effect of this 
treaty upon Persia in William Morgan Shuster's valuable 
book, "The Strangling of Persia." 

39 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

a matter of common knowledge. The steady 
aggressions of Russia in Persia during the 
troubled years of 1910-1912; the almost open 
flouting of the terms of the treaty, which ex- 
pressly guaranteed Persian integrity; the con- 
stant growth of German influence, culminating 
in the Persian extension of the German-owned 
Bagdad Railway; the founding of a German 
school and a hospital in Teheran, jointly sup- 
ported by Germany and Persia; and finally, the 
celebrated Potsdam Agreement of 1910, between 
Russia and Germany, in which Germany agreed 
to recognize Russia's claim to Northern Persia 
as its sphere of influence, which provided for a 
further rapprochment between the two countries 
in the matter of railroad construction and com- 
mercial development generally, and which has 
been generally supposed to contain a guarantee 
that neither country would join "any combina- 
tion of Powers that has any aggressive tendency 
against the other." 

And England did not protest, in spite of the 
fact that the Potsdam Agreement absolutely 
negatived her own treaty with Russia and made 
it, in the language of one writer, "a farce and a 
deception!" Why? Was it because she believed 
that when war came, as it inevitably must, Russia 

40 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

would forget this new alliance in allegiance to 
the old? 

England was mistaken, if she believed so. 
Russia — Imperial Russia — was never so much the 
friend of Germany as when, neglecting the war 
on her own Western front, she sent her armies 
into the Caucasus, persuaded the British to 
undertake the Dardanelles expedition, and, fol- 
lowing her own plans of Asiatic expansion, be- 
trayed England! 

As I write this the Kut el Amerara muddle is 
creating a great stir in the allied countries. Lord 
Hardinge, Viceroy of India, and the government 
of India have been severely blamed for sending 
General Townsend into Mesopotamia with insuf- 
ficient material, medical supplies and troops. At 
the time that the move was made the explanation 
given for it was that it was done in order to pro- 
tect the oil pipes supplying the British navy in 
those waters from being destroyed by the enemy. 
There was no doubt in my mind at that time, in 
spite of the fact that I was in prison and com- 
munication with the outside was very meagre, 
that this was not the real reason. Subsequent 
developments have shown — and the abandon- 
ment of the inquiry instituted by the British Gov- 
ernment about this affair only further supports 

41 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

my contention — that Russia intended to use Eng- 
land's helpless position to secure for herself an 
access to the Persian Gulf. Grand Duke Nicholas 
himself abandoned the campaign on the Eastern 
front to go to die Caucasus. The Gallipoli enter- 
prise which turned out to be such a monumental 
failure was undertaken upon his instigation. Do 
you think for one second that if Imperial Russia 
had thought England was able to capture Con- 
stantinople, a city which she herself has been 
wanting for centuries, she would have invited 
England to do so? The fact is that the Gallipoli 
enterprise tied up all of England's available re- 
serves so that the English could practically do 
nothing to forestall the Russian movements to 
the Persian Gulf. The Government of India, 
realizing die danger, sent General Townsend 
upon the famous Bagdad campaign rather as a 
demonstration, than as a military enterprise. I 
will quote from my diary which I kept while in 
prison. 

"Just read in The Times: 'British moving 
north into Mesopotamia to protect oil pipes and 
capture Bagdad.' I don't need to read Punch 
any more, The Times being just as funny. 
My dear friends, you didn't move up there for 
that reason. You went up there so as to be able 

42 




Raul Madero and Staff. Captain von der Goltz is standing 
the second from the left. 




A group of recruits who came from the United States to 
enter Villa's Army. Captain von der Goltz is at the ex- 
treme left. 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

to tell your Russian friends that there was no 
need to come further south as you were there 
already." 

As part of the Russian Army had already ad- 
vanced as far as Kermansha, General Townsend 
disregarded all military rules and tactics in his 
desperate attempt to keep the Russians from 
going further South, paying very little attention 
to securing his line of communication, and he was 
subsequently cut off from his base and forced to 
surrender to the Turks. 

In the early part of the war Russia did not try 
to gain anything at the expense of Germany but 
consistently applied herself to the task of enrich- 
ing herself at the expense of England. Imperial 
Russia as an ally has constantly been fighting 
England and done the Allied cause more damage 
than the German army." 

But Imperial Russia wrote her own death 
sentence by her treachery. There was a revolu- 
tion in Russia. . . . 

But I anticipate. 

That is the story of my little expedition into 
Russia — and of what it brought about. 

As for me, I was sent back to Gross Lichter- 
felde, where I abruptly ceased to be a young 

43 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

prince, and became once more a humble cadet. 
But only to outside eyes. Dazzled by the success 
of my first mission, I regarded myself as a super- 
man among the cadets. Life loomed romantic- 
ally before me. I told myself that I was to 
consort with princes and beautiful noblewomen 
and to spend money lavishly. The future seemed 
to promise a career that was the merriest, mad- 
dest, for which a man could hope. 

I laugh sometimes now when I think of the 
dreams I had in those days. I was soon to learn 
that the life which fate had thrust upon me was 
set with traps and pitfalls which might not easily 
be escaped. I was to learn many lessons and to 
know much suffering; and I was to discover that 
the finding of my "document" was only the be- 
ginning of a chain of events that were to control 
my whole life — and that its influence over my 
career had not ended. 

But at that time I was all hopes and rosy 
dreams — of my future, of myself, occasionally 
of Nevshka. 

Nevshka. Is she still as charming as ever? 



CHAPTER III. 

Of what comes of leaving important 

papers exposed. I look and talk indiscreetly — 

and a man dies. 

\ N spite of my dreams and extreme self-satis- 
faction, I found the atmosphere of Gross 
Lichterfelde as drab and monotonous as ever it 
had been before my masquerade. Discipline sits 
lightly upon one who is accustomed to it solely, 
but to me, fresh from a glorious fortnight of 
intrigue and festivity, it was doubly galling. Yet 
there was one avenue of escape open to me, that 
was denied my fellows, for I was required to 
pay a weekly visit to my tutor in the Wilhelm- 
strasse, there to continue my studies in the art 
of diplomatic intrigue. 

It is a significant comment upon the life at 
Gross Lichterfelde that I could regard these 
visits as a kind of relaxation. Surely no drill- 
master was ever so exacting as this tutor of mine. 
And yet, despite his dryness and the complete 
lack of cordiality in his manner, there was some- 

45 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

where the gleam of romance about him. To me 
he seemed, in a strangely inappropriate way, 
an incarnation of one of those old masters of 
intrigue who had been my heroes in former days 
at home ; and my imagination distorted him into 
a gigantic, shadowy being, mysterious, inflexible 
and potentially sinister. 

We studied history together that autumn ; not 
the dull record of facts that was forced upon us 
at Gross Lichterfelde, but rather a history of 
glorious national achievement, of ambitions at- 
tained and enemies scattered — a history that had 
the tone of prophecy. And I would sit there in 
the soft autumn sunlight viewing the Fatherland 
with new eyes; as a knight in shining armor, 
beset by foes, but ever triumphing over them by 
virtue of his righteousness and strength of arm. 

Then I would return to Gross Lichterfelde and 
its discipline. 

Yet even at Gross Lichterfelde, we contrived 
to amuse ourselves, chiefly by violating regula- 
tions. That is generally the result of walling 
any person inside a set of rules; his attention 
becomes centered on getting outside. Your own 
cadets at West Point, so I have been told, have 
their traditional list of deviltries, maintained with 
admirable persistence in the face of severe penal- 

46 



My Adventures as a German Secret AgenI 

ties. At Gross Lichterfelde one proved his man- 
liness by breaking bounds at least once a week, 
to drink beer, and flirt with maids none the less 
divine because they were hopelessly plebian. 

In the prevailing lawlessness, I bore my share, 
and in the course of my escapades, I formed an 
offensive and defensive alliance with a cadet of 
my own age against that common enemy of all 
our kind, the Commandant of the school. Willi 
von Heiden, I will call my chum, because that 
was not his name. We became close friends. 
And through our friendship there came an event 
which I shall remember to my last day. It gave 
me a glimpse into the terrible pit of secret 
diplomacy. 

Often at the present, I find myself living it 
over in my mind. If I have learned to take a 
lighter view of life than most men, my attitude 
dates from that time when a careless word of 
mine, spoken in innocence, condemned a man to 
death. I will try to tell very briefly how it 
came about. 

The Christmas after my excursion to St. 
Petersburg I was invited by Willi von Heiden 
to visit him at his home. His father was a squire- 
ling of East Prussia, one of the Junkers. He 
had an estate in that rolling farm land between 

47 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Goldap and Tilsit, which was the scene of count- 
less adventures of Willi's boyhood. 

Just before we left Gross Lichterfelde — yes, 
even there they allow you a few days vacation at 
Christmas — Willi received a letter and came to 
me with a joyous face. 

"Good news," he cried, "we are sure to have 
a lively holiday. Brother Franz is getting a few 
days' leave, too." 

I had heard much of Willi's older brother, 
Franz. He was a young man in the middle 
twenties, an officer of a famous fighting regiment 
of foot, one of the Prussian Guards. Willi had 
dilated upon him in his conversation with me. 
Franz was his younger brother's hero. From all 
accounts Franz von Heiden was possessed of a 
mind of that rare sort which combines unre- 
mitting industry with cleverness. His future as 
a soldier seemed brilliant and assured. 

"Where is Franz?" was Willi's first question 
when we reached his home. 

I shall be long forgetting my first impressions 
of the man. I had been looking for a dry, 
spectacled student, or a stiff young autocrat of 
the thoroughly Prussian type, which I, like many 
other Germans, thoroughly disliked and inwardly 
laughed at. Instead, I found another chum. 

48 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Franz was an engaging young man of slight 
build but very vigorous and athletic. I found 
him frank, friendly, unassuming, apparently 
wholly carefree and full of quiet drollery. From 
his first greeting any prejudice that I might have 
formed from hearing my chum, Willi, chant 
his excellencies, was quite wiped away. And as 
the days passed I found myself drawn to seek 
Franz's company constantly. I have no doubt 
it flattered my vanity — always awake since my 
exploit in St. Petersburg — to find this older 
man treating me as a mental equal. It seemed 
to me that he differentiated between me and 
Willi, who was quite young in manner as well 
as years. At times the impulse was very strong 
for me to confide in Franz, to let him know that 
I was not a mere cadet, that I had been in Russia 
for my government. Luckily for myself I sup- 
pressed that impulse. Luckily for me, but very 
unluckily for Lieutenant Franz von Heiden — 
as it turned out. 

One sunny December morning we were all 
three going out rabbit shooting. While Willi 
counted out shells in the gun room, I went to 
summon Franz from the bedroom he was using 
as his study. It was characteristic of him that 
without any assumption of importance, he gave 

49 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

a few hours to work early every morning, even 
while on leave. I found him intent upon some 
large sheets of paper, but he pushed them aside. 

"Time to start now?" he asked. "Good! Wait 
a minute, while I dress." He stepped into the 
adjoining dressing-room. 

And then, as if Fate had taken a hand in the 
moment's activities, I did a thing which I have 
never ceased to regret. Fate ! Why not ? What 
is the likelihood that by mere vague chance I, of 
all the cadets of Gross Lichterfelde, should have 
become Willi von Heiden's chum and shared his 
holidays? That by mere chance I should have 
been an inmate of his home when Franz was 
there, three days out of the whole year? That 
by mere chance, I, with my precocious knowledge 
and thirst for yet more knowledge, should have 
entered his study when he was occupied with a 
particular task? Why did I not send the servant 
to call him ? And why, instead of doing any one 
of the dozen other things I might have done 
while I was waiting for Franz to change his 
clothes, should I have stepped across and looked 
at the big sheets of paper on his table? 

I did just that. I did it quite frankly and 
without a thought of prying. I saw that the 
sheets were small scale maps. They were the 

50 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

maps of a fort and the names upon them were 
written both in French and in German. The 
thrill of a great discovery shot all through me. 
It flashed upon me that I had heard Willi say 
that during the previous summer Franz had spent 
a long furlough in the Argonne section of 
France. He had been fishing and botanizing — 
so Willi had said. Indeed, only the night before 
Franz himself had told us stories of the sport 
there ; and all his family had accepted the stories 
at their face value. So had I until that moment 
when I stood beside his desk and saw the plans 
of a French field fortress. Then I knew the 
truth. Lieutenant Franz von Heiden was doing 
important work — so confidential that even his 
family must be kept in ignorance about it — for 
the intelligence department of the German 
General Staff. Like me, he was entitled to the 
gloriously shameful name of spy! 

If I had obeyed my natural impulse to rush 
into Franz's room and exchange fraternal greet- 
ings with this new colleague of the secret service, 
so romantically discovered, he might have saved 
himself. Instead, something made me play the 
innocent and be the innocent, too, as far as intent 
was concerned. 

When Franz returned, dressed for the shoot, I 
51 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

was standing looking out of his window, and I 
said nothing about my discovery. 

We had our rabbit shoot that day. We 
crowded all the fun and energy possible into it. 
It was our last day together and by sundown I 
felt as close to Franz von Heiden as though he 
were my own brother. A few days later Willi 
and I went back to Gross Lichterfelde. 

Shortly after I returned from my Christmas 
leave, my tutor sent for me. He even recognized 
the amenities of the occasion enough to unbend a 
little and greeted me with a trace of mechanical 
friendliness. 

"I trust you had a pleasant holiday," he said, 
"you told me, did you not, that you were to 
spend it at the Baron von Heiden's?" 

That touch of friendliness was the occasion of 
my tragic error. I remember that I plunged 
into a boisterous description of my vacation, of 
the pleasant days in the country, of the shooting, 
of Franz. As my tutor listened, with a tolerant 
air, I told him what a splendid fellow Franz was, 
how cleverly he talked and how diligently he 
worked. And then, with a rash innocence for 
which I have never forgiven myself, I told him 
of what I had seen on that day of the rabbit 



52 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

shooting — of the maps on the table. Franz was 
one of us ! 

But my tutor was not interested. Abruptly 
he interrupted my burst of gossip ; and soon after 
that he plunged me into a quiz in spoken French. 
My progress in that seemed his only preoccupa- 
tion. 

A month later Willi von Heiden staggered 
into my room. "Franz is dead," he said. 

The brilliant young lieutenant, Franz von 
Heiden, had come to a sudden and shocking end. 
He was shot dead in a duel. His opponent was 
a brother officer, a Captain von Frentzen. The 
"Court of honor" of the regiment had approved 
of the duel and it was reported that the affair was 
carried out in accordance with the German code. 

Later I learned the story. Captain von Frent- 
zen was suddenly attached to the same regiment 
as Franz. His transfer was a cause of great 
surprise to the officers and of deep displeasure 
to them, for the captain had a notorious reputa- 
tion as a duelist. Naturally the officers, Franz 
among them, had ignored him, trying to force 
him out of the regiment. Upon the night of a 
regimental dance, the situation came to a head. 

In response to the gesture of a lady's fan 
Franz crossed the ball room hurriedly. He was 

53 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

caught in a sudden swirl of dancers and acci- 
dentally stepped on Captain von Frentzen's foot. 
In the presence of the whole company von Frent- 
zen dealt Franz a stinging slap in the face. "Ap- 
parently," he sneered, "you compel .me to teach 
you manners." Franz looked at him, amazed 
and furious. There was nothing that he had 
done which warranted von Frentzen's action. It 
was an outrage — a deadly insult. There was but 
one thing to do. A duel was arranged. 

To understand more of this incident you must 
understand the unyielding code of honor of the 
German officer. Franz von Heiden's original 
offense had been so very slight that even had he 
refused to apologize to Frentzen the conse- 
quences might not have been serious. But 
Frentzen's blow given in public was quite a dif- 
ferent matter. It was a mortal affront. I heard 
that Franz's captain had been in a rage about it. 

"My best lieutenant," he had said to the 
colonel. "An extremely valuable man. To be 
made to fight a duel with that worthless butcher, 
von Frentzen. Shameful! God knows that laws 
are sometimes utterly unreasonable by many of 
our ideas, as officers are equally senseless. I have 
racked my brain to find a way out of this dif- 



54 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

ficulty, but it seems impossible. Can't you do 
something to interfere?" 

The colonel looked at him steadily. "Your 
honest opinion. Is von Heiden's honor affected 
by Frentzen's action?" 

There was nothing Franz's captain could do 
but reply, "Yes." 

The duel was held on the pistol practice 
grounds of the garrison, a smooth, grassy place, 
surrounded by high bushes; at the lower end 
there was a shed built of strong boards, in which 
tools and targets were stored. At daybreak 
Franz von Heiden and his second dismounted at 
the shed and fastened their horses by the bridle. 
They stood side by side, looking down the road, 
along which a carriage was coming. Captain 
von Frentzen, his second, and the regimental 
surgeon got out. Sharp polite greetings were 
exchanged. On the faces of the seconds there 
was a singular expression of uneasiness, but 
Frentzen looked as though he were there for some 
guilty purpose. The prescribed attempts at 
reconciliation failed. The surgeon measured off 
the distance. He was a long-legged man and 
made the fifteen paces as lengthy as possible. 

Just at this moment the sun came up fully. 
Pistols were loaded and given to Franz and 

55 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Frentzen. Fifteen paces apart, the two men 
faced each other. One of the seconds drew out 
his watch, glanced at it and said, "I shall count; 
ready, one! then three seconds; two! — and again 
three seconds; then, stop! Between one and stop 
the gentlemen may fire." He glanced round 
once more. The four officers stood motionless in 
the level light of the dawn. He began to count. 
Presently Franz von Heiden was stretched out 
upon the ground, his blue eyes staring up into 
the new day. He lay still. . . . 

When I heard that story I ceased to be a boy. 
My outlook on the future had been that of an 
irresponsible gamester, undergoing initiation 
into the gayest and most exciting sports. All at 
once my eyes were hideously opened and I 
looked down into the pit that the German secret 
service had prepared for Franz von Heiden, and 
knew I was the cause of it. It was terrible! By 
leaving that map where I could see it Franz von 
Heiden had been guilty of an unforgivable 
breach of trust. By his carelessness he had let 
someone know that the Intelligence Department 
of the General Staff had procured the plans of 
a French fortress in the Argonne. Wherefore, 
according to the iron law of that soulless war 
machine, Franz von Heiden must die. 

56 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

And this is the sinister way it works. Trace 
it. I innocently betray him to my tutor, an 
official of the Secret Diplomatic Service. A few 
days later one of the deadliest pistol shots in the 
German army is transferred to Franz's regiment. 
A duel is forced upon him and he is shot down 
in cold blood. 

Not long after the news of the duel, my tutor 
sent for me. "Is it not a curious coincidence," 
he began, his cold gray eyes boring into mine, 
"that the last time you were here we spoke of 
Lieutenant Franz von Heiden? The next time 
you come to see me he is dead. I understand 
that certain rumors are in circulation about the 
way he died. Some of them may have already 
come to your attention. I caution you to pay no 
attention whatever to such silly statements. 
Remember that a Court of Honor of an honor- 
able regiment of the Prussian Guards has 
vouched for the fact that Lieutenant von 
Heiden's quarrel with Captain von Frentzen and 
the unfortunate duel that followed was conducted 
in accordance with the officers' code of the Im- 
perial Army." 

I hung my head, sick at heart; but he was re- 
lentless. 

"Remember also," he said in a pitiless voice, 
57 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

"that men of intelligence never indulge in fruit- 
less gossip, even among themselves. I hope you 
understand that — by now." He paused a 
moment, as if he remembered something. 

"For some time," he went on, in the most 
casual way, "I have been aware that it will be 
necessary for me to talk to you seriously, Now 
is as good a time as any. You know that your 
training for your future career has been put 
largely in my hands. I am responsible for your 
progress. The men who have made me responsi- 
ble require reports about your development. 
They have not been wholly satisfied with what I 
was able to tell them. Your intentions are good. 
You show a certain amount of natural clever- 
ness and adaptability, but you have also disap- 
pointed them by being impulsive and indiscreet. 

"Now," he said, "I ask you to pay the closest 
attention to everything I shall say. Your at- 
titude must be changed if you are to go on, and 
some day be of service to your government. You 
must learn to treat your work as a deadly serious 
business — not as a romantic adventure. We were 
just speaking of von Heiden. I seem to remem- 
ber vaguely that the last time you were here you 
had some sort of a cock-and-bull story to tell 
me of — what was it? — of seeing some secret maps 

58 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

of French fortifications on the unfortunate young 
man's table. I could hardly refrain from smiling 
at the time. Such poppycock! You do not 
imagine for a moment, do you, that if he had 
proved himself discreet enough to be intrusted 
with such highly confidential things, he would 
have been so imprudent as to betray that fact to 
a mere casual friend of his little brother? I hope 
you see how absurd such imaginings are." 

I groaned mentally as he continued. 

"Remember now," my tutor said icily, "every 
man in our profession is a man who not only 
knows very much, but may know too much, 
unless he can be trusted to keep what he knows 
to himself. There are three ways in which he can 
fail to do that — by carelessness, by accident, and 
by deliberate talking. Never talk — never be 
careless — never have accidents happen to you. 
Then you will be safe, and in no other way can 
you be so safe. Keep that in your mind. You 
will find it much more profitable and useful than 
remembering what anybody has to say about 
Franz von Heiden. It was a commonplace 
quarrel with Captain von Frentzen which killed 
him. A court of honor has said so." 

That night at Gross Lichterfelde, after lights 
were out, Willi von Heiden came creeping to my 

59 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

bed. I was the only intimate friend he had 
there and he felt the need of talking with some 
one about the big brother who had been his hero. 
Need I go into details of how his artless con- 
fidence made me feel? But human beings are 
exceedingly selfish and self-centered creatures. 
I had a heart-felt sorrow for my chum and his 
family in their tragic bereavement . And, blaming 
myself as I did for it, I was abased completely. 
Yet there was another feeling in me at least as 
deeply rooted as those two emotions. It was 
dread. 

Dread was to follow me for many years. I 
had learned the dangers of the dark secret world 
in which I lived. Its rules of conduct and its 
ruthless code had been revealed to me, not merely 
by precept but by example. And with that 
realization all the thrill of romance and adven- 
ture disappeared. For I knew that I, too, might 
at any time be counted among the men who 
"knew too much." 



CHAPTER IV. 

I am sent to Geneva and learn of a plot. 

How there are more ways of getting rid of a 

King than by blowing him up with 

dynamite. 

¥F at any time in this story of my life, I have 
given the impression that accident did not 
play a very important part in the work of my- 
self and other secret agents, I have done so un- 
intentionally. "If" has been a big word in the 
history of the world ; and even in my small share 
of the events of the last ten years, chance has 
oftentimes been a more able ally than some of the 
best laid of my plans. If, for instance, I had 
not happened to be in Geneva in the winter of 
1909-10; or if a certain official of the Russian 
secret police — the Okrana — had not met a well- 
deserved death at the hands of a committee of 
"Reds"; or if the German Foreign Office had 
not been playing a pretty little game of diplo- 
macy in the Southwestern corner of Europe — 
why, the world today would be poorer by a King, 

61 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

and possibly richer by another combatant in the 
Great War. 

And if another King had not kept a diary 
he might have kept his throne. And if both he 
and a certain young diplomat, whose name I 
think it best to forget, had not had a common 
weakness for pretty faces, Germany would have 
lost an opportunity to gain some information 
that was more or less useful to her, an actress 
whose name you all know would never have be- 
come internationally famous, and this book 
would have lost an amusing little comedv of 
coincidences. 

All of which sounds like romance and is — 
merely the truth. 

I had spent two uneventful years at Gross 
Lichterfelde at the time the comedy began; two 
years of study in which I had acquired some 
knowledge and a great weariness of routine, of 
hard work unpunctuated by any element of ad- 
venture. Of late it had almost seemed as if, 
after all, it was planned that I should become 
merely one of the vast army of officers that Gross 
Lichterfelde and similar schools were yearly 
turning out. For such a fate, as you can imagine, 
I had little liking. 

Consequently I was far from displeased when 
62 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

one day I received a characteristically brief note 
from my old tutor, asking me to call upon him. 
Still more was I elated when, the next day, he 
informed me that I had enough of books for the 
time being, and that he thought a little practical 
experience would be good for me. A vacation, I 
might call it, if I wished — with a trifle of de- 
tective work thrown in. 

H'm. I was not so delighted with that pros- 
pect, and when the details of the "vacation" were 
explained to me, I was strongly tempted to say 
no to the entire proposition. But one does not 
say no to my old tutor. And so, in the course of 
a week, I found myself spending my evenings in 
the Cafe de VEurope in Geneva, bound on a still 
hunt for Russian revolutionists. 

Russia, at this time, had not quite recovered 
from the fright she received in 1905 and 1906, 
when, as you will remember, popular discontent 
with the government had assumed very serious 
proportions. "Bloody Sunday," and the riots 
and strikes that followed it, were far in the past 
now, it is true, but they were still well remem- 
bered. And although most of the known revolu- 
tionary leaders had been disposed of in one way 
or another, there were still a few of them, as well 
as a large number of their followers, wandering 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

in odd corners of Europe. These it was thought 
best to get rid of; and Russian agents promptly 
began ferreting them out. And Germany — 
always less unfriendly to the Romanoffs than has 
appeared on the surface — lent a helping hand. 

So it happened that on a particular night in 
December of 1909, I sat in the Cafe de V Europe, 
bitterly detesting the work I had in hand, yet 
inconsistently wishing that something would 
turn up. I had no idea at the moment of what 
I should do next. Chance rumor had led me to 
Geneva, and I was largely depending upon 
chance for further developments. 

They came. I had been sitting for an hour 
I suppose, sipping vermouth and lazily regard- 
ing my neighbors, when the sound of a voice 
came to my ears. It was the voice of a man 
speaking French, with the soft accent of the 
Spaniard; the tone loud and unsteady and full 
of the boisterous emphasis of a man in his cups. 
But it was the words he spoke that commanded 
my attention. 

"Our two comrades," he was saying, "will 
soon arrive from the center in Buenos Ayres." 

"Yes," another voice assented — a harsher 
voice, this, to whose owner French was obviously 
also a foreign tongue. "In the spring, we hope." 

64- 



^O CONSTi TOc/0/ 

<$?* republic" mexicana 




i General Brigadier, Jefe. de 13 Brigada Gonzalez Ortega, a nomt»? 
C Gpal. «o .Jefe de las Operaeiones en ei Estado, Francisco Villa- 



tmiu*?j&* 






ea**-~£*Si; .,-fd>iio^ 




The Brevet promoting Senior Captain von der Goltz to the 
rank of Major of Cavalry in the Mexican Constitutionalist 
Army. It will be noted that the commission bears the signa- 
ture of Raul Madero and General Villa. 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

The Spaniard laughed. 

"An excellent business! So simple. Boom! 
And our dear Alfonso. ..." 

Some element of caution must have come over 
him, for his voice sank so that I could no longer 
hear his words. But I had heard enough to 
make me assume a good deal. 

Some one was to be assassinated! And that 
some one? It was a guess, of course, but the 
name and the accent of the speaker were more 
than enough to lead me to believe that the pro- 
posed victim must be King Alfonso of Spain. 

I sat there, undecided for the moment. It 
was really no affair of mine. I was on another 
mission, and, after all, my theory was merely a 
supposition. On the other hand, the situation 
presented interesting possibilities — and as I 
happened to know, Alfonso's seemingly pro- 
German leanings and made him an object of 
friendly interest at that time to my government. 

I decided to look into the matter. 

It had been difficult to keep from stealing a 
glance at my talkative neighbors but I restrained 
myself. I must not turn around and yet it was 
vitally necessary that I see their faces. All I 
could do was to hope that they would leave be- 
fore I finished my vermouth ; for I had no mind 

65 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

to risk my clear-headedness with more than the 
glass I had already had. 

They did leave shortly afterward. As they 
passed my table I took care to study their faces, 
and my intention to keep them in sight was im- 
mensely strengthened. The Spaniard I did not 
know, but his companion I recognized as a Rus- 
sian — and one of the very men I was after. 

I had been in Geneva long enough to know 
where I could get information when I needed it. 
It was only a day or two, therefore, before I had 
in my hands sufficient facts to justify me in 
reporting the matter to my government. 

Alfonso was in England at the time and pre- 
sumably safe ; for I had gathered that no attempt 
would be made upon his life until he returned to 
Spain. So I wrote to Berlin reporting what I 
had learned. 

A telegram reached me next day. I was 
ordered to Brussels to communicate my informa- 
tion to the Spanish Minister there. 

Mark that: I was ordered to Brussels, al- 
though there was a Spanish Minister in Switzer- 
land. But my government knew that there were 
many factions in Spain, and it had strong 
reasons to believe that the Spanish Minister to 
Belgium was absolutely loyal to Alfonso. And 

66 " 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

in a situation such as this, one takes as few- 
chances as possible. 

I followed my instructions. The Spanish Min- 
ister thanked me. He was more than interested ; 
and he begged me, since I had no other direct 
orders, to do him the personal favor of staying 
a few days longer in the Belgian capital. I did 
so, of course, and a day or so later received from 
my government instructions to hold myself at 
the Spaniard's disposal for the time being. 

That night, at the minister's request, I met 
him and we discussed the matter fully. He 
wished me, he said, to undertake a more thorough 
investigation of the plot. I was already involved 
in it, and would be working less in the dark than 
another. Besides, he hinted, he could not very 
well employ an agent of his own government. 
Who knew how far the conspiracy extended? 

I was not displeased to abandon my chase of 
the Russian revolutionaries, toward whom I felt 
some sympathy. So, as a preliminary step, I 
went up to Paris, where through the good offices 
of one Carlos de Silva — a young Brazilian free- 
thinker, who was there ostensibly as a student — 
I succeeded in gaining admission into one of the 
righting organizations of radicals there. They 
were not so communicative as I could have 

67 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

wished, but by judicious pumping I soon learned 
that there was an organized conspiracy against 
the life of Alfonso, and that the details of the 
plot were in the hands of a committee in Geneva. 

Geneva, then, was my objective point. But 
what to do if I went there? I knew very well 
that conspirators do not confide their plans to 
strangers. And I dared not be too inquisitive. 
Obviously the only course to follow was to em- 
ploy an agent. 

Now, Cherchez la femme is as excellent a 
principle to work on when you are choosing an 
accomplice, as it is when you are seeking the 
solution of a crime. I therefore proceeded to 
seek a lady — and found her in the person of a 
pretty little black-eyed "revolutionist," who 
called herself Mira Descartes, and with whom I 
had already had some dealings. 

It is here that accident crosses the trail again. 
For if a certain official of the Ohrana had not 
been murdered in Moscow three years before, his 
daughter would never have conceived an intense 
hatred of all revolutionary movements and I 
should have been without her invaluable assist- 
ance in the adventure I am describing. 

Mira Descartes! She was the kind of woman 
of whom people like to say that she would have 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

made a great actress. Actress? I do not know. 
But she was an artist at .dissembling. And she 
had beauty that turned the heads of more than 
the "Reds" upon whom she spied; and a genius 
for hatred: a cold hatred that cleared the brain 
and enabled her to give even her body to men she 
despised in order the better to betray them. 

I was fortunate in securing her aid, I told 
myself; and I did not hesitate to use her services. 
(For in my profession, as must have been ap- 
parent to you, scrupulousness must be reserved 
for use "in one's private capacity as a gentle- 
man.") 

So Mile. Descartes went to Geneva, and armed 
with my previously acquired information and 
her own charms, she contrived to get into the 
good graces of the committee there, and sur- 
prised me a week later by writing to Paris that 
she had already contracted a liaison with the 
Spaniard whom I had overheard speaking that 
night in the Cafe de VEurope. 

Soon I had full information about the entire 
plot. It was planned, I learned, to blow up 
King Alfonso with a bomb upon the day of his 
return to Madrid. The work was in the hands 
of two South Americans who were then in 
Geneva. 

69 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

But far more important than this was the in- 
formation which Mile. Descartes had obtained 
that a high official of Spain — a member of the 
Cabinet — was cognizant of the plot and had kept 
silent about it. 

Why, I asked myself, should this official — a 
man who surely had no sympathy with the aims 
of the revolutionists — lend his aid to them in this 
plot? The reason was not hard to discover. 
Alfonso's position at the time was far from 
secure. His government was unpopular at 
home; and the pro-Teutonic leanings of many 
government officials had lost him the moral and 
political support of the English government and 
press — a fact of considerable importance. 

So it seemed possible that Alfonso's reign 
might not be of long duration. And the new 
government? It might be radical or conserva- 
tive; pro-English or pro-German. A man with 
a career did well to keep on friendly terms with 
all factions. Thus, I fancied, the Cabinet Minis- 
ter must have reasoned. At any rate he said 
nothing of the plot. 

But I went to Brussels and reported all I had 
learned — and did not forget to mention the 
Cabinet Minister's rumored share in the plot.- 

There my connection with the affair ceased. 
70 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

But not long after a little tragi-comedy occurred 
which was a direct result of my activities. Let 
me recall it to you. 

On the evening of May 24, 1910, those of the 
people of Madrid who were in the neighborhood 
of that monument which had been raised in mem- 
ory of the victims of the attempted assassination 
of Alfonso, four years before, were horrified by 
a tragedy which they witnessed. 

There was a sudden commotion in the streets, 
an explosion, and the confused sound of a crowd 
in excitement. 

What had happened? Rumor ran wild through 
the crowd. The King was expected home that 
day — he had been assassinated. There had been 
an attempted revolution. Nobody knew. 

But the next day everybody knew. A bomb 
had burst opposite the monument — a bomb that 
had been intended for the King. One man had 
been killed ; the man who carried the bomb. But 
the King had not arrived in Madrid that day 
after all. 

The police set to work upon the case and 
presently identified the dead man as Jose Taso- 
zelli, who recently arrived in Spain from Buenos 
Ayres. It was not certain whether he had any 
accomplices. 

71 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

And while the police worked, the King, fol- 
lowing a secret arrangement which had been 
made by the Spanish Minister at Belgium, and 
of which not even the Cabinet had been informed 
— arrived safely and quietly in Madrid; a day 
late, but alive. 

What became of the Cabinet Minister? There 
are no autocracies now, and not even a King may 
prosecute without proof. So the Minister 
escaped for the time being. But it is interesting 
to remember that this same Minister was as- 
sassinated, not a great while after. 

Now there are more ways of getting rid of a 
king than by blowing him up with dynamite. 
Foreign Offices are none too squeamish in their 
methods, but they do balk at assassination, even 
if the proposed victim is a particularly objection- 
able opponent of their plans. There is another 
method which, if it be correctly followed, is every 
bit as efficacious. . . . Again I must refer you 
to that excellent French proverb: Cherchez la 
femme. 

It would be difficult to estimate properly the 
part that women have played in the game of 
foreign politics. As spies they are invaluable: 
for amourous men are always garrulous. But as 

72 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Enslavers of Kings they are of even greater 
service to men who are interested in effecting a 
change of dynasty. Even the most loyal of sub- 
jects dislikes seeing his King made ridiculous; 
and in countries where the line is not too strictly 
drawn between the public exchequer and the 
private resources of the monarch, a discontented 
faction may see some connection between exces- 
sive taxes and the jewels that a demi-mondaine 
wears. Revolutions have occurred for less than 
that — as every Foreign Office knows. 

I am not insinuating that all royal scandals 
are to be laid at the door of international politics. 
I merely suggest that, given a king who is to be 
made ridiculous in the eyes of his subjects, it is 
a simple matter for an interested government to 
see that he is introduced to a lady who will pro- 
duce the desired effect. But no diplomat will 
admit this, of course. Not, that is, until after he 
has "retired." 
This brings me to the second act of my comedy. 

If I were drawing a map of Europe — a diplo- 
matic map, that is, — as it was in the years of 
1908 to 1910, I should use only two colors. Ger- 
many should be, let us say, black; England red.. 
But the black of Germany should extend over 
the surfaces of Austria, Italy and Turkey ; while 

73 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

France and Russia should be crimson. The rest 
of the continent would be of various tints, rang- 
ing from a discordant combination of red and 
black, through a pinkish gray, to an innocuous 
and neutral white. 

In the race to secure protective alliances 
against the inevitable conflict, both Germany 
and England were diligently attempting to color 
these indeterminate territories with their own 
particular hue. Not least important among the 
courted nations were Spain and Portugal. Both 
were traditionally English in sympathy; both 
had shown unmistaken signs, at least so far as 
the ruling classes were concerned, of transferring 
their friendship to Germany. It was inevitable, 
therefore, that these two countries should be the 
scene of a diplomatic conflict which, if not ap- 
parent to the outsider, was fought with the 
utmost bitterness by both sides. 

Somehow, by good fortune rather than any 
other agency — Spain had managed to avoid a 
positive alliance with either nation. Alfonso was 
inclined to be pro-German at that time; but an 
adroit juggling of the factions in his kingdom 
had prevented him from using his influence to 
the advantage of Germany. 

Portugal was in a different situation. Poorer 
74 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

in resources than her neighbor, and hampered by 
the necessity of keeping up a colonial empire 
which in size was second only to England's, she 
had greater need of the protection of one of the 
Powers. Traditionally — and rightly from a 
standpoint of self-interest — that Power should 
have been England. There were but three ob- 
stacles to the continuance of the friendship that 
had existed since the Peninsular War — King 
Manuel, the Queen Mother and the Church. 

Germany seemed all-powerful in the Peninsula 
in 1908. Alfonso's friendship was secured, and 
the boy king of Portugal was completely under 
the thumb of a pro-German mother and a Church 
which, as between Germany and England, dis- 
liked Germany the less. England realized the 
situation and in approved diplomatic fashion set 
about regaining her ascendancy. 

But diplomacy failed. At the end of two 
years Berlin was more strongly intrenched in 
Portugal than ever; and England knew that 
only heroic measures could save her from a 
serious diplomatic defeat. 

Then Manuel did a foolish thing. He kept a 
diary. 

It was a commonplace diary, as you will re- 
member if you read the parts of it which were 

75 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

published some time after the revolution which 
dethroned its author. The outpourings of a very 
undistinguished young man — conceited, self- 
indulgent, petulant — it gained distinction only as 
the revelation of an unkingly person's thoughts 
on himself in particular and women in multi- 
tudes. But there were portions of it — many of 
them never published — which expressed unmis- 
takably Manuel's anti-English feeling and his 
affection for Germany. 

Somehow England came into possession of the 
diary. 

Perhaps it was the diary's revelation of 
Manuel's extreme susceptibility to feminine 
charms, which suggested the next step. That I 
cannot tell. In any event, not long after the 
diary became a matter of diplomatic moment, 
Manuel paid a visit to England, ostensibly in 
search of a bride. His search was unsuccessful; 
but in London he met and promptly became in- 
fatuated with Mile. Hedwig Navratil — better 
known as Gaby Deslys. 

They chose well who selected the lovely Bo- 
hemian as the instrument of Manuel's downfall. 
Young, charming, she had all the qualities which 
would appeal to Manuel's nature. Added to 
that, it had been rumored that not long before 

76 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

King Alfonso had shown some interest in her — 
and Manuel was easily influenced by the ex- 
ample of his elders. 

You remember the rest of the story. Manuel's 
frequent visits to Paris, where Mile. Gaby was 
playing; the jewels — bought, it was said, with 
money from the public treasury — which he 
showered upon her; these were the subjects of 
countless rumors at the time. Then came re- 
ports that the lady was domiciled in one of the 
royal palaces. Finally, in September of 1910, 
the scandalized and tax-ridden populace of 
Portugal, learned that Mile. Deslys had been 
"billed" at the Apollo Theatre in Vienna as the 
"Mistress of the King of Portugal." 

On October 5th, this same scandalized and tax- 
ridden populace joined forces with the revolu- 
tionary party — and Manuel fled to England, 
where he attended numerous musical comedies 
and hoped against hope that the English Govern- 
ment would live up to that provision of the 
treaty of 1908 which pledged England to aid the 
Portuguese throne in the event of a revolution. 
But England — remembering the diary — wisely 
forgot its pledge. And a Republican govern- 
ment in Portugal looked with suspicion upon the 
diplomatic advances of a nation which had been 

77 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

too friendly towards the exiled king — and be- 
came pro-English, as you know. 

There ends my comedy. The lady in the case 
achieved a sudden international fame and eventu- 
ally came to America, where, I believe, she at- 
tracted more interest than commendation. But 
at best, so far as we are concerned, she is of im- 
portance merely as an illustration of how diplo- 
macy — or chance, if you prefer — combines 
politics and the woman for its own purposes. 

But there is an amusing epilogue to the affair, 
which was not without its importance to the 
Wilhelmstrasse, and in which I had a small part. 
To tell it, I must pass over several months of 
work of one sort or another, until I come to the 
following winter — that of 1911. 

I was on a real vacation this time and had 
selected Nice as an excellent place in which to 
spend a few idle but enlivening weeks. The 
choice was not a highly original one, but as it 
turned out, chance seemed to have had a hand 
in it after all. Almost the first person I met 
there was a man with whom I had been ac- 
quainted for several years, and who was destined 
to have' his share in the events which followed. 

People who have visited Europe many times 
can hardly have avoided seeing upon one oc- 

78 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

casion or another, a famous riding troupe who 
called themselves the "Bishops." They were five 
in number — Old Bishop, his daughter and her 
husband, a man named Merrill, and two others — 
and their act, which was variously known as "An 
Afternoon on the Bois de Boulogne," "An After- 
noon in the Thiergarten," etc. (depending upon 
the city in which they played), was a feature of 
many of the famous circuses of seven or eight 
years ago. At this time they were helping to 
pay their expenses through the winter, by play- 
ing in a small circus which was one of the current 
attractions of Nice. 

'I had bought horses from old Bishop in the 
past and knew him for a man of unusual shrewd- 
ness, who besides being the father of a charming 
and beautiful daughter, was in himself excellent 
company; and I was consequently pleased to run 
across him and his family at a time when all my 
friends seemed to be in some other quarter of the 
earth. We talked of horses together and it was 
suggested that I might care to inspect an Arab 
mare, a recent acquisition, of which the old man 
was immensely proud. 

That evening I heard of the arrival in Nice of 
a young British diplomat, an undersecretary of 
one of the embassies, whom, I remembered I had 

79 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

once met at a hotel in Vienna. I called upon him 
the following day — but I did so, not so much to 
renew our old acquaintance, as because that very- 
morning I had received a rambling letter from 
my chief, commenting upon the imminent arrival 
of the Englishman and suggesting that I might 
find him a pleasant companion during my stay 
on the Riviera. 

More work, in other words. My chief did not 
waste time in encouraging purposeless friend- 
ships. As I read the letter, it was a hint that 
the Englishman had something which Berlin 
wanted and I was to get it. 

It was not difficult to recall myself to the 
Undersecretary. We became friendly, and pro- 
ceeded to "do" Nice together; and in the course 
of our excursions we became occasional visitors 
at the villa of Maharajah Holkar, who, with his 
secretary (and his seraglio) lived — and still 
lives, for all I know — at 56 Promenade des 
Anglais. 

The Maharajah was at that time an engaging 
and eccentric old gentleman, who had been an 
uncompromising opponent of the English during 
his youth in India, and was now practically an 
exile, spending most of his time in planning 
futile conspiracies against the British Govern- 

80 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

ment, which he hated, and making friends with 
Englishmen toward whom he had no animosity 
whatever. He was especially well disposed to- 
ward my diplomatic friend, and the two spent 
many a riotous evening together over the chess 
board, at which the Maharajah was invariably 
successful. 

Meanwhile I made various plans and culti- 
vated the acquaintance of the Rajah's secretary. 
He was a Bengali, who might well have stepped 
out of Kipling, so far as his manner went. In 
character the resemblance was not so close. I 
happened to know that he was paid a comfortable 
amount yearly by the British Government, to 
keep them informed of the Bajah's movements; 
and I also happened to know that the German 
Government paid him a more comfortable 
amount for the privilege of deciding just what 
the British Government should learn. (I have 
often wondered whether he shared the proceeds 
with the Maharajah, and whether even he knew 
for whom he was really working.) The secre- 
tary, I decided, might be of use to me. 

As it happened, it was the secretary who un- 
wittingly suggested the method by which I 
finally gained my object. It was he who com- 
mented upon the diplomat's intense interest in 

81 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

the Maharajah's seraglio, giving me a clue to 
the character of the Englishman, which was of 
distinct service. And it was he who suggested 
one evening that the three of us — for the Maha- 
rajah was ill at the time — should attend a per- 
formance of the circus in which my friends, the 
Bishops, were playing. 

You foresee the end, no doubt. The diplomat, 
with his too susceptible nature, was infatuated 
by Mile. Bishop's beauty and skill. He wished 
to meet her, and I, who obligingly confessed that 
I had had some transactions with her father, 
undertook to secure the lady's permission to 
present him to her. 

I did secure it, of course, although not without 
considerable opposition on the part of all three 
of the family ; for circus people are very straight- 
laced. However, by severely straining my purse 
and my imagination, I convinced them that they 
would be doing both a friendly and a profitable 
act, by participating in the little drama that I 
had planned. Eventually they consented to aid 
me in discomfiting the diplomat, whom I repre- 
sented as having in his possession some legal 
papers that really belonged to me, although I 
could not prove my claim to them. 

You will pardon me if I pass over the events 
82 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

of the next few days, and plunge directly into a 
scene which occurred one night, about a week 
later, the very night in fact on which the Bishops 
were to close their engagement with the little 
circus in which they were playing. It was in 
the sitting-room of the diplomat's suite at the 
hotel that the scene took place; dinner a deuce 
was in progress — and the diplomat's guest was 
Mile. Bishop, who had indiscreetly accepted the 
Englishman's invitation. 

Came a knock at the door. Mademoiselle grew 
pale. 

"My husband," she exclaimed. 

Mademoiselle was right. It was her husband 
who entered — very cold, very businesslike, and 
carrying a riding crop in his hand. He glanced 
at the man and woman in the room. 

"I suspected something of the sort," he said, 
in a quiet voice. "You are indiscreet, Madame. 
You do not conceal your infidelities with care." 
He took a step toward her, put paused at an 
exclamation from the Englishman. 

"Do not fear, Monsieur — " elaborate irony 
was in his voice as he addressed the diplomat — "I 
shall not harm you. It is with this — lady — only, 
that I am concerned. She has, it appears, an 
inadequate conception of her wifely duty. iT 

83 



'My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

must, therefore, give her a lesson." As he spoke 
he tapped his boot suggestively with his riding 
whip. 

"My only regret," he continued politely, "is 
that I must detain you as a witness of a painful 
scene, and possibly cause a disturbance in your 
room." 

Again he turned toward his wife, who had sat 
watching him, with a terrified face. Now as he 
approached her she burst into tears, and ran to 
where the Englishman stood. 

"He is going to beat me," she sobbed. "Help 
me, for Heaven's sake. Stop him. Give him 
— give him anything." 

But the Englishman did not need to be 
coached. 

"Look here!" he cried suddenly, interposing 
himself between the husband and wife. "I'll 
give you fifty pounds to get out of here quietly. 
Good God, man, you can't do a thing like this, 
you know. It's horrible. And you have no 
cause. I give you my word you have no cause." 

He was a pitiable mixture of shame and ap- 
prehension as he spoke. But Merrill looked at 
him calmly. He was quite unmoved and still 
polite when he replied: 

"The word of a gentleman, I suppose. No, 
84 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Monsieur, it is useless to try to bribe me. It is 
a great mistake, in fact. Almost — " he paused 
for a moment, as if he found it difficult to con- 
tinue — "almost it makes me angry." 

He was silent for a space, but when he spoke 
again it was as if in response to an idea that had 
come to him. 

"Yes," he continued. "It does make me angry. 
Nevertheless, Monsieur, I shall accept your sug- 
gestion. Madame and I will leave quietly, and 
in return you shall give us — O, not money — but 
something that you value very much." 

He turned to his wife. 

"Madame. You will go to Monsieur's trunk, 
which is open in the corner, and remove every 
article so that I can see it." 

The Englishman started. For a moment it 
seemed as if he would attack Merrill, who was 
the smaller man, but fear of the noise held him 
back. Meantime, the woman was riffling the 
trunk, holding up each object for her husband's 
inspection. The latter stood at the door, his eyes 
upon both of the others. 

"We are not interested in Monsieur's cloth- 
ing," he said calmly. "What else is there in the 
trunk? Nothing? The desk then. Only some 
papers? That is a pity. Let me have them, 

85 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

however — all of them. And you may give me 
the portfolio that lies on the bureau." 

As he took the packet, the rider turned to the 
diplomat, who stood as if paralyzed, in the corner 
of the room. 

"I do not know what is in these papers, Mon- 
sieur, but I judge from your agitation that they 
are valuable. I shall take them from you as a 
warning — a warning to let married women alone 
in the future. Also I warn you not to try to 
bribe a man whom you have injured. You have 
made me very angry to-night by doing so. 

"Above all," he added, "I warn you not to 
complain to the police about this matter. This is 
not a pretty story to tell about a man in your 
position — and I prepared to tell it. Good 
night, Monsieur." 

He did not wait to hear the Englishman's 
reply. 

That night, while the two younger members 
of the Bishop family sped away on the train — 
to what place I do not know — and old Bishop 
expressed great mystification over their disap- 
pearance, I made a little bonfire in my grate of 
papers which had once been the property of the 
diplomat, and which I knew would be of no 

86 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

interest to my government. There were a few 
papers which I did not burn — a memorandum 
or two, and a bulky typewritten copy of 
Manuel's diary, which I found amusing reading 
before I took it to Berlin. 

I called upon my English friend the next day 
but I did not see him. He had been taken ill, 
and had been obliged to leave Nice immediately. 
No, it was impossible to say what the ailment 
was. 

Ah, well, I thought, as I returned to my 
room, he would get over it. It was an em- 
barrassing loss, but not a fatal one; and doubt- 
less he could explain it satisfactorily at home. 

I was sorry for him, I confess. But more 
than once that day I laughed as I thought of the 
scene of last night, as Mile. Bishop had described 
it to me. An old game — but it had worked so 
easily. 

But then, wasn't it Solomon who complained 
about the lack of original material on this globe? 

The Diary? I took it to Berlin, as I have said, 
where it was a matter of considerable interest. 
Subsequently it was published, after discreet 
editing. 

But at that time I was engaged upon a matter 
of considerably more importance. 



CHAPTER V. 

Germany displays an interest in Mexico, 

and aids the United States for her own purposes. 

The Japanese-Mexican treaty and its 

share in the downfall of Diaz. 

IT was in Paris that my next adventure oc- 
curred. I had gone there following one of 
those agreeably indefinite conversations with my 
tutor which always preceded some especial under- 
taking. "Why not take a rest for a few weeks?" 
he would say. "You have not seen Paris 
in some time. You would enjoy visiting the city 
again — don't you think so?" And I would 
obligingly agree with him — and in due course 
would receive whatever instructions were neces- 
sary. 

It may seem that such methods are needlessly 
cumbersome and a little too romantic to be real; 
but in fact there is an excellent reason for them. 
Work such as mine is governed too greatly by 
emergencies to admit of definite planning before- 
hand. A contingency is foreseen — faintly, and 

88 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

as a possibility only — and it is thought advisable 
to have a man on the scene. But until that con- 
tingency develops into an assured fact, it would 
be the sheerest waste of energy to give an agent 
definite instructions which might have to be 
changed at any moment. 

So I had become accustomed to receive my in- 
structions in hints and stingy morsels, under- 
standing perfectly that it was part of my task 
to discover for myself the exact details of the 
situation which confronted my government. If 
I were not sufficiently astute to perceive for my- 
self many things which my superiors would never 
tell me — well, I was in the wrong profession, 
and the sooner I discovered it the better. 

I went to Paris in just that way and put up 
at the Grand Hotel. So far as I knew I was on 
genuine leave of absence from all duties and I 
proceeded to amuse myself. Though under no 
obligations to report to anyone, I did occasion- 
ally drop around to the Quai d'Orsay — where 
most of the embassies and consulates are — to 
chat with men I knew. One day it was sug- 
gested to me at the Germany Embassy that I 
lunch alone the next day at a certain table in the 
Cafe Americaine. "I would suggest," said one 
of the secretaries, "that you wear the black derby 

89 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

you have on. It is quite becoming," — this with 
an expressionless face. "I would suggest 
also that you hang it on the wall behind your 
table, not checking it. Take note of the precise 
hook upon which you hang it. It may be that 
there will be a man at the next table who also 
will be wearing a black derby hat, which he will 
hang on the hook next to yours. When you go 
out be careful to take down his hat instead of 
your own." 

I asked no questions. I knew better. Old and 
well known as it is, the "hat trick" is peren- 
nially useful. Its very simplicity makes it dif- 
ficult of detection. It is still the best means of 
publicly exchanging documents between persons 
who must not be seen to have any connection 
with each other. 

I went to the Cafe Americaine, that cos- 
mopolitan place on the Boulevard des Italiens 
near the opera. My man had not yet come, I 
noticed, and I took my time about ordering 
luncheon, drank a "bock" and watched the 
crowd. Near by was a party of Roumanians, 
offensively boisterous, I thought. An American 
was lunching with a dancer then prominent at 
the Folies. Two Englishmen — obviously of- 
ficers on leave — chatted at another table, and in 

90 



'My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

a corner, a group of French merchants heatedly 
discussed some business deal. The usual scene 
.... almost commonplace in its variety. 

Slowly I finished luncheon, and when I turned 
to get my hat, I saw, as I expected, that there 
was another black derby beside it. I took the 
stranger's derby, and when I reached my room 
in the Grand Hotel I lifted up the sweat band. 
There on thin paper were instructions that took 
my breath away. For the time being I was to be 
in charge of the "Independent Service" of the 
German Government in Paris — that is, the 
Strong Arm Squad. 

This so-called "Independent Service" is an 
interesting organization of cut-throats and 
thieves whose connection with diplomatic under- 
takings is of a distinctly left-handed sort, and is, 
incidentally, totally unsuspected by the members 
of the organization themselves. Composed of 
the riff-raff of Europe — of men and women who 
will do anything for a consideration and ask no 
questions — it is frequently useful when subtler 
methods have failed and when by violence only 
can some particular thing be accomplished. As 
an organization the "Independent Service" does 
not actually exist: the name is merely a generic 
one applied for convenience to the large number 

91 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

of people in all great cities who are available for 
such work, and who, if they fail and are arrested 
or killed, can be spared without risk or sorrow. 

Naturally in illegal operations the trail must 
not lead to the embassy; and for that reason all 
transactions with members of the "Service" are 
carried on through a person who has no known 
connection with the Government. To his ac- 
complices the Government agent is merely a man 
who has come to them with a profitable sugges- 
tion. They do not question his motives if his 
cash be good. 

My connection with this delightful organiza- 
tion necessitated a change of personality. I 
went round to the Quai d'Orsay and paid a few 
farewell calls to my friends there. I was going 
home, I said; and that afternoon the Grand 
Hotel lost one guest and Le Lapin Agile on the 
hill of Montmartre gained a new one. Acting 
under instructions I had become a social outcast 
myself. 

The place where I had been told to stay had 
been a tavern for centuries. Once it was called 
the Cabaret of the Assassins,, then the Cabaret 
of the Traitor ; then My Country Place and now, 
after fifty years, it was The Sprightly Rabbit. 
Andre Gill had painted the sign of the tavern, 

92 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

a rabbit which hung in the street above the en- 
trance. After I had taken my room — being 
careful to haggle long about the price, and finally 
securing a reduction of fifty centimes — for one 
does well to appear poor at Le Lapin Agile — I 
came down into the cabaret. It was crowded 
and the air was thick and warm with tobacco 
smoke. Disreputable couples were sitting 
around little wooden tables, drinking wretched 
wine from unlabeled bottles; an occasional shout 
arose for "tomatoes," a specialty of Frederic, the 
proprietor, which was, in reality, a vile brew of 
absinthe and raspberry syrup. There was much 
shouting and once or twice one of the company 
burst into song. 

"Tomatoes," I told the waiter who came for 
my order. As he went I slipped a franc into his 
hand. "I want to see The Salmon. Is he in?" 

He nodded. 

A moment later a man stood before me. I saw 
a short, rather thick-set fellow, awkward but 
wiry, whose face bore somewhere the mark of a 
forgotten Irish ancestor. He was red-haired. 
I did not need his words to tell me who he was. 

"I am The Salmon/' he said. "What do you 
want?" 

I studied him carefully before replying, ap- 
93 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

praising him as if he were a horse I contemplated 
buying. It was not tactful or altogether safe, 
as The Salmon's expression plainly showed; but 
I wished to be sure of my man. After a moment : 

"Sit down, my friend," I told him. "I have 
a business proposition to make. M. Morel sent 
me to you." 

He smiled at the name. The fictitious M. 
Morel had put him in the way of several ex- 
cellent "business propositions." 

"It is a pleasure," responded The Salmon, 
"What does Monsieur wish?" 

I told him. . . . 

In order to make you understand the business 
I was on, it is necessary that I pause here, 
abandoning The Salmon for the moment, and 
recall to your memory a few facts about the 
political situation as it existed in this month of 
February, 1911. Europe at the time was alull 
— to outward seeming. As everybody knows 
now the forces that later brought about the War 
were then merrily at work, as indeed they had 
been for many years. But outwardly, save for 
the ever impending certainty of trouble in the 
Balkans, the world of Europe was at peace. 

But in America a storm was brewing. Mexico, 
which for so many years had been held at peace 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

under the iron dictatorship of Diaz, was begin- 
ning to develop symptoms of organized discon- 
tent. Madero had taken to the field, and al- 
though no one at the time believed in the ultimate 
success of the rebellion, it was evident that many- 
changes might take place in the country, which 
would seriously affect the interests of thousands 
of European investors in Mexican enterprises. 
Consequently Europe was interested. 

I do not purpose here to go into the evenxs of 
those last days of Diaz's rule. That story has 
already been told, many times and from various 
angles. I am merely interested in the European 
aspects of the matter, and particularly in the 
attitude of Germany. 

Europe was interested, as I have said. Diaz 
was growing old and could certainly not last 
much longer. Then change must come. Was 
the Golden Age of the foreign investor, which 
had so long continued in Mexico, to continue 
still longer? Or would it end with the death of 
the Dictator? 

To these questions, which were having their 
due share of attention in the chancellories as well 
as in the commercial houses of Europe, came 
another, less apparent but more troublesome and 
more insistent than any of these. Japan, it was 

95 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

rumored, although very faintly, was seeking to 
add to its considerable interest in Mexico, by 
securing a strip of territory on the western coast 
of that country — an attempt which, if successful, 
would almost certainly bring about intervention 
by the United States. 

My government was especially interested in 
this movement on the part of Japan. It knew 
considerably more about the plan than any save 
the principals, for, as I happened to learn later 
on, it had carefully encouraged the whole idea — 
for its own purposes. And it knew that at that 
very time, the financial minister of Mexico, Jose 
Yves Limantour, was conducting preliminary 
negotiations in Paris with representatives of 
Japan, regarding the terms of a possible treaty. 
It knew that even then a protocol of this treaty 
was being drawn up. 

There was only one thing that my government 
wanted — a copy of the protocol. It was that 
which I had been instructed to get! 

The personality of Limantour is one of the 
most interesting of our day. Brilliant, incor- 
ruptible, unquestionably the most able Mexican 
of his generation, he had for seventeen years been 
closely associated with the dictator, and for a 
considerable portion of that period had been 

96 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

second only to Diaz in actual power. His pres- 
ence in Paris at this time was significant. He 
had left Mexico on the 11th of July, 1910, osten- 
sibly because of the poor health of his wife, 
although it had been reported that a serious break 
had taken place between himself and Diaz. He 
had spent a certain amount of time in Switzer- 
land, and had later come to Paris to arrange a 
loan of more that $100,000,000 with a group of 
English, French and German bankers. But that 
task had ben completed in the early part of 
December, and in view of the unsettled conditions 
in Mexico, there was no good reason for his con- 
tinuing in Paris, save one — the negotiations with 
Japan. 

It was this man against whom 1 was to fight — 
this man who had proven himself more than a 
match for some of the best brains of both con- 
tinents. The prospect was not reassuring. I 
knew that already several attempts had been 
made by our agents to secure the protocol,, with 
the result that Limantour was sure to be more 
on his guard than he ordinarily would have been. 
Yet I must succeed — and it was plain that I 
could do so only by violence. 

Violence it should be, then ; and with the assist- 
ance of my friend The Salmon — to whom, you 

97 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

may be sure, I did not confide my real object — 
I prepared a plan of campaign, which we duly 
presented to a group of The Salmon's friends, 
who had been selected to assist us. To these 
men — Apaches, every one of them — I was pre- 
sented as a decayed gentleman who for reasons 
of his own had found it necessary to join the 
forces of The Salmon. I was a good fellow, The 
Salmon assured them, and by way of proving my 
friendship I had shared with him my knowledge 
of a good "prospect" whom I had discovered. 

"The man," I said, "always carries lots of 
money and jewelry." Of course I did not tell 
them his name was Limantour. I said he always 
played cards late at the club. "To stick him 
up," I said, "will be the simplest thing in the 
world, but we must be careful not to hurt him 
badly — not enough to set the police hot on our 
trail." The Apaches fell in with the proposal 
enthusiastically. We would attempt it the fol- 
lowing night. 

Now the instructions which came to me under 
the sweatband of the black derby in the Cafe 
Americaine informed me that every night quite 
late Limantour received at the club a copy of 
the report of the day's conference with the 
Japanese envoy. It was prepared and delivered 

98 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

to Limantour by his secretary and it was his 
habit to study it, upon returning home, and plan 
out his line of attack for the negotiations of the 
following day. I concluded that Limantour 
therefore would have it (the report) on his per- 
son when he left the club. 

Accordingly I had my Apaches waiting in the 
shadows. There were five of us. Limantour 
started to walk home, as I knew he was fre- 
quently in the habit of doing. We followed and 
in the first quiet street that he ventured down, 
he was blackjacked. In his pockets we found a 
little money and some papers, one glance of 
which assured me were of no value. 

My carefully planned coup had failed. You 
can imagine how I felt about such a fiasco and 
how very quickly I had to think. Here was my 
first big chance and I had thoroughly and hope- 
lessly bungled it. Limantour was already stir- 
ring. The blow he had received had purposely 
been made light. If he recovered to find himself 
robbed merely of an insignificant sum of money 
and some papers his suspicions would be aroused. 
T could not hope for another chance at him. I 
knew that Limantour was too clever not to sense 
something other than ordinary robbery in such 
an attack upon him. Furthermore my Apaches 

99 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

had to be bluffed and deceived as thoroughly as 
he was. I had promised them a victim who 
carried loads of money and at the few coins they 
had obtained there was much growling. Luckily 
I had a flash of sense. I resolved to turn the 
mishap to my advantage. 

"We hit the wrong night, that's all," I mut- 
tered. "You take the coins and get away. I 
am going to try to fool him." Like rats they 
scurried away. When Limantour came to he 
found a very solicitous young man concerned 
with his welfare. 

"I saw them from down the street," I told 
him, "they evidently knocked you out, but they 
cleared out when I came. Did they get any- 
thing from you? Here seem to be some letters." 
And from the sidewalk I picked up and restored 
to him the papers I had taken from his pockets, 
not two minutes before. 

Limantour accepted them and I knew that my 
audacity had triumphed. 

"They are not of very much importance," said 
Limantour, "and I had only a few francs on me." 

Then suddenly, as if he just realized that he 
was alive and unharmed, Jose Limantour began 
to thank me for my assistance. I thought of 
those who had told me he was a cold, hard distant 

100 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

man. Limantour flung his arms around my 
neck. I was hi: savior! I was a very brave 
young gentleman. If I had not come up so 
boldly and promptly to his aid, he might have 
been very badly beaten, perhaps even killed. 
For all he knew he owed me his life. He must 
thank me. He must know his preserver. Here 
was his card. Might he have mine? I had been 
wise enough to keep some of my old cards when 
I changed the rest of my personality from the 
Grand Hotel to Montmartre. I gave him one 
of them. 

"A German," he exclaimed, "and a worthy 
representative of that worthy race." Limantour 
was enchanted. "And you live at the Grand 
Hotel?" 

That was better still. I was only a sojourner 
in Paris and one might venture to offer me hos- 
pitality — no? Next day he would send around 
a formal invitation to come and dine at his house 
and meet his family. They would be delighted 
to meet this brave and intrepid hero and would 
also wish to thank me. 

In a near! y cafe we had a drink and parted 
for the night. Next morning of course I had 
to appear again at the Grand Hotel. On foot 
I walked away from L,e Lapin Agile, jumping 

101 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

into a taxi when I was out of sight. The taxi 
took me to the Gare du Nord; there I doubled 
in my tracks and presently, as if just having left 
a train, I took another taxi and was driven with 
my luggage to the hotel. I dropped around that 
afternoon to the Quai d'Orsay and called upon 
some of my acquaintances, remarking that I had 
come back for a little holiday. That night I had 
the pleasure of dining with Limantour. 

Thereafter I had to lead a double life. By 
day, I was an habitue of prominent hotels, res- 
taurants, and clubs. I associated with young 
diplomats and occasionally took a pretty girl to 
tea. By night I lived in Le Lapin Agile and 
consorted with thugs and their ilk. It cost me 
sleep, but I did not begrudge that in view of 
the stakes. All this time I was cultivating the 
acquaintance of Limantour and those around 
him. 

Shortly afterward I succeeded in taking one 
of the members of his household on a rather wild 
party and when his head was full of champagne 
he babbled that Limantour and his family were 
planning to sail for Cuba and Mexico on the 
following Saturday. I was also informed that 
on Friday, the day before the sailing, there would 
be a farewell reception at one of the embassies. 

102 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Knowing Limantour's habits of work as I did 
by this time, I was able to lay my plans with as 
much certainty as prevails in my profession. 
After weighing all the possibilities I decided to 
defer my atempt on him until this last Friday 
night. I reasoned that he would probably re- 
ceive a draft of the agreement from his secretary 
at the club late than night. He would take it 
home with him and go over it with microscopic 
care. The next forenoon — Saturday — he would 
meet the Japanese envoy just long enough to 
finish the matter and then he would hurry to the 
steamer. Of course Limantour might have 
acted in a different way. That was the chance 
one has to take. 

Friday night came. In his luxurious limous- 
ine, Limantour and his family went to the fare- 
well reception of the embassy. Comparatively 
early, he said his farewell — leaving Madame to 
go home later — and in his car he proceeded to 
the club. I saw him pass through the vestibule 
after leaving his chauffeur with instructions to 
wait. My guess as to Limantour's movements 
had been right, so the plans I had made worked 
smoothly. 

I, too, had an automobile waiting near his 
club. Two of my men sauntered over to Liman- 

103 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

tour's car. Under pretence of sociability they 
invited his chauffeur to have a drink. They led 
him into a little cafe on a side street near by, 
the proprietor of which was in with the gang. 
Limantour's chauffeur had one drink and went 
to sleep. My men stripped him of his livery, 
which one of them donned. Presently Liman- 
tour had a new chauffeur sitting at the wheel of 
his limousine. 

An hour later Limantour was seen hurrying 
out of the club. As a man will, he scarcely 
noticed his chauffeur but cast a brief "home" to 
the man at the wheel. His limousine started, 
following a route through deserted residential 
streets, in one of which I had the trap ready. 
Half blocking the road was a large automobile, 
apparently broken down. It was the automobile 
in which I had been waiting outside the club. 
In it were four of my Apaches. Limantour's 
car was called upon to stop. 

"Can you lend me a wrench?" one of my men 
shouted to Limantour's false chauffeur. 

His limousine stopped. That free masonry 
which existed in the early days between motorists 
lent itself nicely to the situation. It was most 
natural for the chauffeur of Limantour's car to 
get out and help my stalled motor. Indeed, 

104 



My Adventures as a, German Secret Agent 

Limantour himself opened the door of the lim- 
ousine and half protruding his body, called out 
with the kindest intentions. 

To throw a chloroform-soaked towel over his 
head was the work of an instant. In half a 
minute he was having dreams — which I trust 
were pleasant. It was still necessary to keep my 
own men in the dark, to give these thugs no 
inkling that this was a diplomatic job. This 
time I was prepared ; for I had learned of Liman- 
tour's habits in regard to carrying money on his 
person. In my right hand overcoat pocket there 
were gold coins and bank notes. With the leader 
of the gang, I went through Limantour's clothes. 
In the darkness of that street, it was a simple 
matter to seem to extract from them a double 
fist-full of gold pieces and currency, which I 
turned over to The Salmon. 

"Perhaps he has more bank notes," I mut- 
tered, and I reached for the inner pocket of his 
coat. There my fingers closed upon a stiff docu- 
ment that made them tingle. "I'll just grab 
everything and we can go over it afterwards.'' 
Out of Limantour's possession into mine came 
pocket-book, letters, card-case and that heavy 
familiar feeling paper. 

Dumping the unconscious Limatour into his 
105 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

limousine we cranked up our car and were off, 
leaving behind us at the worst, plain evidence 
of a crime common enough in Paris. It was to 
be corroborated next morning by the discovery 
of a drunken chauffeur, for we took pains to go 
back and get him once more into his uniform 
and full of absinthe. But it did not come to even 
that much scandal. Limantour, for obvious 
reasons, did not report the incident to the police. 
The next morning it was given put that Liman- 
tour had gone into the country and would not 
sail for a week. He had had a sudden recrudes- 
cence of an old throat trouble and must rest and 
undergo treatment before undertaking the voy- 
age to Mexico — so the specialist said. This report 
appeared in Paris newspapers of the day. Of 
the protocol nothing was said at that time or 
later — by Senor Limantour. 

I turned it over to the proper authorities in 
Berlin, and very soon departed from Mont- 
martre, leaving behind me a well-contented 
group of Apaches, who assured me warmly that 
I was born for their profession. I did not argue 
the question with them. 

There the matter might have ended ; but Ger- 
many had another card to play. On February 
27, 1911, Limantour left Paris for New York, 

106 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

to confer with members of the Madero family, 
in order if possible to effect a reconciliation and 
to end the Madero revolt. He landed in New 
York on March 7th. On that very day, by an 
odd coincidence, as one commentator* calls it, 
the United States mobilized 20,000 troops on 
the Mexican border! 

It was no coincidence. The Wilhelmstrasse 
had read the proposed terms of the treaty with 
great interest. It had noted the secret clauses 
which gave Japan the lease of a coaling station, 
together with manoeuver privileges in Magda- 
lena Bay, or at some other port on the Mexican 
coast which the Japanese Government might 
prefer. It had noted, too, that agreement which, 
although not expressly stipulating that Japan 
and Mexico should form an offensive and de- 
fensive alliance, implied that Japan would see 
to it that Mexico was protected against aggres- 
sion. 

And then Germany — acting always for her 
own interests — forwarded the treaty to Mexico, 
where it was placed in the hands of the American 
Ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson. 

Mr. Wilson immediately left for Washington 
with a photograph of portions of the treaty. A 



*Mr. Edward I. Bell, in his "The Political Shame of Mexico; 

107 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Cabinet meeting was held. That night orders 
were sent out for the mobilization of American 
troops, the assembling of United States marines 
in Guantanamo and the patrolling of the west 
coast of Mexico by warships of the United 
States. 

Within a week Mr. Wilson held a conference 
in New York with Senor Limantour. Limantour 
left hurriedly for Mexico City, arriving there 
March 20th. Conferences were held. Japan 
denied the existence of the treaty and Washing- 
ton recalled its war vessels and demobilized its 
troops. But barely seven weeks after Liman- 
tour arrived in Mexico, Madero, the bankrupt, 
with his handful of troops "captured" Ciudad 
Juarez. And shortly after, Diaz, discredited and 
powerless, resigned from the office he had held 
for a generation. 

That is the story of the fall of Diaz so far as 
Germany was concerned in it. There were other 
elements involved, of course — but this is not a 
history of Mexico. 

Germany had done the United States a service. 
It is interesting to consider the motives for her 
action. 

Those motives may be explained in two words : 
South America. 

108 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Germany, let it be understood, wants South 
America and has wanted it for many years. Not 
as a possession — the Wilhelmstrasse is not insane 
— but as a customer and an ally. Like many 
other nations, Germany has seen in the countries 
of Latin America an invaluable market for her 
own goods and an unequaled producer of raw 
supplies for her own manufacturers. She has 
sought to control that market to the best of her 
abilities. But she has also done what no other 
European nation has dared to do — she has at- 
tempted to form alliances with the South Ameri- 
can countries which, in the event of war between 
the United States and Germany, would create a 
diversion in Germany's favor, and effectively tie 
the hands of the United States so far as any 
offensive action was concerned. 

There was just one stumbling block to this 
plan: the Monroe Doctrine. It was patent to 
German diplomats that such an alliance could 
never be secured unless the South American 
countries were roused to such a degree of hostility 
against the United States that they would wel- 
come an opportunity to affront the government 
which had proclaimed that doctrine. And Ger- 
many, casting about for a means of making 
trouble, had encouraged the Japanese-Mexican 

109 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

alliance, hoping for intervention in Mexico and 
the subsequent arousal of fear and ill-feeling 
toward the United States on the part of the 
South American countries. 

And Germany had been so anxious for the 
United States to intervene in Mexico that she 
had not only encouraged a treaty which would 
be inimical to your interests, but had made cer- 
tain that knowledge of this treaty should come 
into your government's hands by placing it there 
herself! 

The United States did not intervene and Ger- 
many for the moment failed. But Germany did 
not give up hope. The intrigue against the 
United States through Mexico had only begun. 

It has not ended yet. 



CHAPTER VI. 

My letter again. I go to America and 

become a United States soldier. Sent to Mexico 

and sentenced to death there. I join 

Villa's army and gain an undeserved 

reputation. 

¥ MUST leave Europe behind me now and go 
*■ on to the period embraced in the last five 
years. A private soldier in your United States 
Army — the victim of an attempt at assassination 
in stormy Mexico — major in the Mexican army; 
once again German secret agent and aide of 
Franz von Papen, the German Military 
Attache in Washington ; prisoner under suspicion 
of espionage, in a British prison, and finally your 
Government's central witness in the summer of 
1916, in a case that was the sensation of its hour 
— these are the roles I have been called on to play 
in that brief space of time. 

In the month of April, 1912, 1 abruptly quitted 
the service of my government. The reasons 
which impelled me were very serious. You re- 

111 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

member that my active life began with the dis- 
covery of a document of such personal and politi- 
cal significance that government agents followed 
me all over Europe until I drove a bargain with 
them for it. In the winter of 1912, by a chain of 
circumstances I must keep to myself, that self- 
same document came again into my possession. 
I knew enough then, and was ambitious enough, 
to determine that this time I would utilize to the 
full the power which possession of it gave me. 
But it could not be used in Germany. There- 
fore I disappeared. 

There was an immediate search for me, which 
was most active in Russia. I was not in Russia 
nor in Europe. After running over in mind all 
the most unlikely places I could put myself I 
had found one that seemed ideal. 

While they were scouring Russia for me I was 
making my way across the Atlantic Ocean in the 
capacity of steward in the steerage of the steam- 
ship Kroonland of the Red Star Line. 

The Kroonland docked in New York City in 
May, 1912. I left her as abruptly as I had left 
a prouder service. Three days later a sorry- 
looking vagabond, I had applied for enlistment 
in the United States Army and had been ac- 
cepted. I was sent to the recruiting camp at 

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My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Fort Slocum, and under the severe eye of a 
sergeant began to learn my drill. 

It was toward the middle of May that I — or 
rather, "Frank Wachendorf" — enlisted. After a 
stretch of recruit training at Fort Slocum, I was 
assigned to the Nineteenth Infantry, then at 
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 

I learned my drill — shades of Gross Lichter- 
felde! — with extreme ease. That is the only 
single thing that I was officially asked to do. 

But early in my short and pleasant career as a 
United States soldier something happened which 
gave me special occupation. My small library 
was discovered. Among the volumes were 
Mahan's "Sea Power" and Gibbon's "Decline 
and Fall" — not just the books one would look for 
among the possessions of a country lout hardly 
able to stammer twenty words in English. But 
the mishap turned in my favor. My captain sent 
for me. 

"Wachendorf," he said, a y ou probably have 
your own reasons for being where you are. That 
is none of my business. But you don't have to 
stay there. If you want to go in for a commis- 
sion you are welcome to my books and to any aid 
I can give you." 

Thereafter life in the Nineteenth was de- 
113 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

cidedly agreeable. I set myself sincerely and 
whole-heartedly at the task of winning a com- 
mission in your army. I believe I might eventu- 
ally have won it, too. But fate revealed other 
plans for me when I had been an American 
soldier some nine months. 

That winter of 1913, you remember, had been 
a stormy period in Mexico. Huerta had made 
his coup d'etat. Francisco Madero had been 
deposed and murdered. President Taft had 
again mobilized part of the United States forces 
on the border, leaving his successor, President 
Wilson, to deal with a Southern neighbor in the 
throes of revolution. 

The Nineteenth Inf antiy was ordered to Gal- 
veston, Texas. And in Galveston the agents of 
Berlin suddenly put their fingers on me again. 
It happened in the public library. I was reading 
a book there one day when a man I knew well 
came and sat down beside me. We will call him 
La Vallee — born and bred a Frenchman, but 
one of Germany's most trusted agents. 

"Wie gelvtSj von der Goltz?" was his greeting. 

I told him he had mistaken me for some one 
else. He laughed. 

"What's the use of bluffing," he asked, "when 
each of us knows the other? Just read these in- 

114 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

structions I'm carrying." He laid a paper be- 
fore me. 

La Vallee's instructions were brief and out- 
wardly not threatening. Find von der Goltz, 
they bade him. Try to make him realize how 
great a wrong he was guilty of when he deserted 
his country. But let him understand, too, that 
his government appreciates his services and be- 
lieves he acted impulsively. If he will prove his 
loyalty by returning to his duty his mistake will 
be blotted out. 

I read carefully and asked La Vallee how I 
was expected to prove my loyalty at that par- 
ticular time. 

"You know what it is like in Mexico now," he 
said. "Our government has heavy interests 
there. Your services are needed in helping to 
look out for them." 

"But," I objected, "I am a soldier in the 
United States Army. You are asking me to be 
a deserter." 

"Germany," said La Vallee, "has the first 
claim on every German. If your duty happens 
to make you seem a deserter, that is all right. 
Frank Wachendorf must manage to bear the dis- 
grace. Speaking of that," he added, carelessly 
enough, but eyeing me severely, "were you not 

115 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

indiscreet there? Suppose some enemy should 
find out that you made false statements when 
you enlisted? I believe there is a penalty." 

La Vallee knew that he had me in his power. 
I had to yield, and was told to report to the 
German Consul at Juarez, across the Rio Grande 
from El Paso. So in March, 1913, Frank 
Robert Wachendorf, private, became a deserter 
from the United States Army and a reward of 
$50 was offered for his arrest. 

Before I crossed the border I had one very 
important piece of business to attend to, and I 
stopped in El Paso long enough to finish it. 
Mexico, under the conditions that prevailed, was 
an ideal trap for me. As the lesser of two evils 
I had decided to risk my body there. But I had 
no mind to risk also what was to Berlin of far 
more value than my body — namely, that docu- 
ment which, a year before, had led to my abrupt 
departure from Germany and her service. 

In El Paso, where I was utterly unacquainted, 
I had to find some friend in whose stanchness I 
could put the ultimate trust. Being a Roman 
Catholic, I made friends with a priest and led 
him into gossip about different members of his 
flock. He spoke of a harnessmaker and saddler, 
one E. Koglmeier, an unmarried man of about 

116 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

fifty, who kept a shop in South Santa Fe Street. 
He was, the priest said, the most simple-minded, 
simple-hearted and utterly faithful man he knew. 

I lost no time in making Koglmeier's ac- 
quaintance, on the priest's introduction, and we 
soon were on friendly terms. When I crossed 
the international bridge I left behind in his safe 
a sealed package of papers. He knew only that 
he was to speak to no one about them and was to 
deliver them only to me in person or to a man 
who bore my written order for them. 

I reported to the German Consul in Juarez. 
He asked me to carry on to Chihuahua certain 
reports and letters addressed to Kueck, the Ger- 
man Consul there. From Chihuahua Kueck sent 
me on to Parral with other documents. And a 
German official in Parral gave me another parcel 
of papers to carry back to Kueck. 

I had no sooner reached Chihuahua on the re- 
turn trip than I was put under arrest by an 
officer of the Federal (Huertista) forces, then 
in control of the city. I asked on whose author- 
ity. On that, he said, of Gen. Salvador Mercado. 
I was a spy engaged in disseminating anti- 
Federal propaganda. I had to laugh at the 
sheer absurdity of that, and asked what proofs 
he had to sustain such charges. 

117 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

"The papers you are carrying," he said then, 
"will be proof enough, I think." 

Chihuahua was under martial law. I had not 
the slightest inkling as to what might be in those 
papers I had so obligingly transported. I had 
put my foot into it, as your saying goes, up to. 
my neck, the place where a noose fits. 

They marched me up to the cuartel and into 
the presence of Gen. Mercado. That was June 
23, 1913, at 9 o'clock in the evening. 

Gen. Salvador Mercado, then the supreme 
authority in Chihuahua, with practical powers of 
life and death over its people, proved to be a 
squat, thick, bull-necked man with a face of an 
Indian and the bearing of a bully. 

His first words stirred my temper to the bot- 
tom, luckily for me. If I had confronted the 
man with any other emotion than raging anger 
I should not be alive now. 

"Your Consul will do no good," he told me 
sneeringly. "He says you are not a German. 
You are a Gringo. You are a bandit and a 
robber. You have turned spy against us, too, 
I am going to make short work of you. But first 
you are going to tell me all you know." 

As the completeness of the frame-up flashed 
upon me I went wild. There was a chair beside 

118 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

me. I converted one leg into a club and started 
for Mercado. The five other men in the room 
got the best holds upon me that they could. By 
the time they had mastered me Mercado had 
backed away into the furthest corner of the room. 

The remainder of our interview was stormy 
and fruitless. It resulted in my being taken to 
Chihuahua penitentiary, the strongest prison in 
Mexico, and thrown into a cell. It was two 
months and a half before I came out again. 

There is small use going in detail into the 
major and minor degradations of life in a Mexi- 
can prison. I pass over cimeoc lectularius and 
the warfare which ended with my release. There 
are more edifying things to tell. For instance, 
how I came into possession of half a blanket and 
a pair of friends. 

I was confined — incommunicado, a sentry with 
fixed bayonet standing before my door — in an 
upper tier in the officers' wing. Confinement in 
the officers' wing carried one special privilege 
in which I, the desperado, did not share. During 
the day the cell doors were left open and the 
prisoners had the run of the corridor and gal- 
leries. My sentry's bayonet barred them from 
me, but could not keep them from talking of the 
new prisoner who claimed to be a German and 

119 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

was suffering because he was suspected of at- 
tachment to the Constitutionalist cause. 

On my third or fourth night there I was at- 
tarcted to my cell door by a sibilant "Oiga! 
Alemanl" and something soft was thrust between 
the bars. 

"German," whispered a voice in Spanish out 
of the blackness, "it is cold to-night. We have 
brought you up a blanket." 

So began my friendship with Pablo Alman- 
daris and Rafael Castro, two young Constitution- 
alist officers. Almendaris, in particular, later 
became a chum of mine. He was a long, lank, 
solemn individual, the very image of Don 
Quixote of La Mancha. I remember him with 
love because he was the man who gave to me in 
prison, out of kindness of heart, a full half of his 
single blanket. 

This is how it happened. He and Rafael 
Castro, who were cellmates, had contrived a way 
to pick their lock and roam the cell block at 
night, stark naked, their brown skins blending 
perfectly with the dingy walls. They had already 
heard the story of my plight. That night Almen- 
daris had cut his blanket in two, and the pair, 
with the bit of wool and a bottle of tequilla they 
had bought that day when the prison market was 

120 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

open, sneaked up to the gallery and my cell. 
They gave the liquor to the sentry, who, being an 
Indian, promptly drank the whole of it down and 
became blissfully unconscious. 

The blanket was the first of many gifts, and 
many were the chats we had together, all with a 
practical purpose. 

"If you ever escape or are released," Alman- 
daris kept telling me, "go to Trinidad Rodri- 
guez. He is my colonel. And if you ever get 
out of Mexico, go to El Paso and hunt up 
Labansat. He is there." 

So they contrived to alleviate the minor evils 
of my predicament, and I shall never forget 
them. The major difficulty was beyond their 
reach. The trap had closed completely round 
me. The charge of spying and Mercado's general 
truculence were only cloaks for a more subtle 
hostility from another quarter. The reason for 
my imprisonment was soon revealed openly. 

I had made various attempts to communicate 
with Kueck, the German Consul. Always I met 
the retort that Kueck himself said I was no 
German. At the same time, managing to smug- 
gle an appeal for aid to the American Consul, I 
was informed that eitquette forbade his taking 
any steps in my behalf. Kueck himself, he said, 

121 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

had told him the German Consulate was doing 
all it could to protect me. It did not need a 
Bismarck to grasp the implications of those con- 
tradictory statements. 

After I had been in prison for about three 
weeks Kueck came to see me and made the whole 
matter thoroughly plain. 

"Von der Goltz," he opened bluntly, "you are 
in a bad situation." 

"Do you think so?" I asked him, significantly. 

"I have every reason to think so," he said. 
"My hands are tied. I positively can take no 
steps in your behalf, unless — he looked straight 
at me — "unless you restore certain documents 
you have no right to possess." 

They had me nicely. The surrender of my 
letter was the price I must pay for my life. 
Acting under instructions, he had made me a 
definite offer. I had to take it or leave it. 

I could not give the letter up. It was my 
guarantee of safety. As long as Kueck did not 
know where it was I was valuable to him only 
while alive. Furthermore, I had some hopes of 
being freed by outside aid. Through Almendaris 
I had learned that the Constitutionalists were at- 
tacking Chihuahua, with good hope of taking the 
city. I knew that if they succeeded, the German 

122 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

— whose suffering for their cause, I was told^ was 
known throughout their forces — would be well 
taken care of. So I reached my decision. 

"Herr Consul," I said, "I will not give up the 
papers you refer to. I am not a child. Those 
papers are in a safe place. So are instructions 
as to their disposal in case of emergency. Let 
anything happen to me, and within a fortnight 
every newspaper in the United States will be 
printing the most sensational story within mem- 
ory." 

On July 23, 1913, I was tried by court-martial 
and sentenced to death. That led to a bitter 
personal quarrel between Gen. Manuel Chao, the 
Constitutionalist commander attacking the city, 
and Mercado, who defended it. 

Chao sent in a flag of truce, absolving me from 
any connection with his cause and threatening 
that if I were killed Mercado personally would 
have to pay the score when the Constitutionalists 
took Chihuahua. The Indian bully retorted that 
if the Constitutionalists ever captured the city 
they would not find their pet alive there. 

Three times in the weeks that followed, the 
Constitutionalist forces seemed on the point of 
capturing Chihuahua. Have you ever walked 
out with your own firing squad and spent an 

123 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

endless half hour on a chilly morning in the com- 
pany of an officer with drawn sword, five soldiers 
with loaded rifles and a sergeant with the revolver 
destined to give you your coup de grace? Three 
times that happened to me, at Mercado's orders. 
My profession has seldom permitted me to in- 
dulge in personal hatreds, but as I was marched 
back from that third bad half hour my mind was 
filled with one thought: If ever I got Mercado 
where he had me then I would let him know what 
it felt like. 

Then matters came to a crisis. Reinforce- 
ments were brought up from Mexico City and 
the Constitutionalist besiegers suffered a crush- 
ing defeat. I could put no more hope in them. 

Kueck came again to see me. 

"Give me an order on Koglmeier for -those 
papers," he demanded. "There's no use saying 
Koglmeier hasn't got them, for I know he has." 

I could see he was not bluffing, and knew the 
game was up. I signed the release for the papers. 
There had been no personal animosity between 
Kueck and myself. I had seen too much of life 
to be angry with a man simply because he was 
obeying his orders. 

About September 12, 1913, Kueck came to 
escort me out of prison, and in his own carriage 

124 



o 




My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

drove me to the railway station, bound north, out 
of Mexico. I had a sheaf of letters, signed by 
Kueck, which recommended me, as Baron von 
der Goltz, to the good offices of German Consular 
representatives throughout the United States 
and requested them to supply me with funds. 

The last man who spoke to me in Chihuahua 
was Col. Carlos Orozco, commander of the Sixth 
Battalion of Infantry, and Gen. Mercado's right- 
hand man, though his bitter enemy. His farewell 
was a threat. "You are lucky to get out of 
Mexico," he told me. "If you ever come back 
and I see you I will have you shot at once." My 
next meeting with Col. Carlos Orozco occurred 
on Mexican soil. 

Escorted by Consul Kueck out of Mexico I 
went up to El Paso, determined to return to 
Mexico as soon as possible. But before I did 
anything else, I felt a very great desire to square 
accounts with Gen. Salvador Mercado. 

So I stopped off at El Paso to look for Laban- 
sat, the Constitutionalist about whom my friend 
Pablo Almendaris told me while I was in prison, 
I lost no time in getting into touch with him and 
other members of the Constitutionalist junta. 

Another acquaintance made at that time 
proved very useful to me later. Dr. L. A. 

125 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Raschbaum, Francisco Villa's personal physician, 
was a fellow guest at the Ollendorf Hotel. 

We were an earnest but impecunious bunch. 
Juan T. Burns, now Mexican Consul General 
in New York, may still remember a morning 
when he and I found ourselves with one nickel 
between us and the necessity of getting breakfast 
for two at an El Paso lunch counter. That lone 
"jitney" bought a cup of coffee and two rolls. 
Each of us took a roll and we drank the cup of 
coffee mutually. 

I also renewed my intimacy with Koglmeier, 
the saddler in South Santa Fe Street. He told 
me a man he did not know had come with my 
written order for the papers I had left in his 
safe and he had turned them over. 

Despairing at last of obtaining results at El 
Paso, I availed myself of my consular recom- 
mendations and went out to Los Angeles, Cal. 
There I received help from Geraldine Farrar, 
whom I had known in Germany, and in Novem- 
ber, 1913, directly after the battle of Tierra 
Blancha, Chihuahua, I received a telegram say- 
ing: "Dr. Raschbaum' s proposition accepted; 
come at once," and signed "Francisco Villa.'* 
My way lay open before me and I was free to 
start. 

126 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

I reached El Paso on November 27th and 
went on to Chihuahua, which had fallen into the 
hands of the Constitutionalists. Once there, I 
looked up my friend of the half blanket, Pablo 
Almendaris, and by him was introduced to Col. 
Trinidad Rodriguez, commanding a cavalry 
brigade, who promptly attached me to his staff, 
with the rank of captain. 

The Federalists had retreated across the desert 
northward and settled themselves in Ojinaga, 
the so-called Gibraltar of the Rio Grande, a 
tremendously strong natural position. 

Toward the middle of December we received 
orders to proceed to the attack of Ojinaga. Our 
brigade and the troops of Gens. Panfilo Natira 
and Toribio Ortego were included in the ex- 
pedition, some 7,000 men. The railway carried 
us seventy miles. The rest of the journey had 
to be made on horseback. During four days of 
marching in the desert I made acquaintance with 
Mexican mounted infantry, the most effective 
arm for such conditions and country the world 
has seen. 

Arriving before the outer defenses of Ojinaga, 
we began our siege of the city. Soon after I got 
my first sight of Pancho Villa. 

Of a sudden one evening, Trinidad Rod- 
127 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

riguez told me that "Pancho" had just arrived 
and we must ride over for a conference with him. 

We found Villa lying on a saddle blanket in 
an irrigation ditch in the company of Raul 
Madero, brother of the murdered President, a 
handful of officers who had come up with them, 
and our own commanders, ISTatira and Ortega. 

Madero, to my mind one of the ablest Mexicans 
alive, was clad in the dingiest of old gray 
sweaters. Villa, unkempt, unshaven and un- 
shorn, was begrimed and weary from his ride 
across the desert. But he seemed full of bottled- 
up energy, and when Gen. Rodriguez and I came 
up he was giving Gen. Ortega a talking to be- 
cause so little had been accomplished in regard 
to taking Ojinaga. 

While we talked I rolled me a cigarette, and 
all at once he broke off abruptly. "Give me some 
of that, too," he demanded. I handed him "the 
makings" and he attempted a cigarette. He was 
so clumsy with it that I had to roll it for him. 
Then for the first and last time in my acquaint- 
ance with him I saw Pancho Villa smoke. Con- 
trary to the stories that have gone out about him, 
he is a most abstemious man with regard to 
alcohol and tobacco. 

On Christmas night, 1913, happened the ad- 
128 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

venture which made me, quite by accident, and 
without intention, a hero. Also, I underwent 
the greatest fright of my life. 

My commander, Rodriguez, had received 
orders to make an attack that night straight- 
forward toward Ojinaga. After it was com- 
pletely dark we formed and advanced, rinding 
ourselves very soon among the willows lining the 
bank of the Rio Conchas, which we had to cross. 

It was my first taste of genuine warfare, and 
I cannot begin to tell you how it affected me, 
how ghastly it was among the willows in the 
vague darkness through which the column was 
threading its way with the utmost possible quiet- 
ness. The beat of hoofs was muffled in the soggy 
ground, and the only sound to break the utter 
stillness of the night was the occasional clank of a 
spur or thin neigh of a horse. 

Then all at once, to the front and in the dis- 
tance, came a boom — the single growling of a 
field-gun. Ping! Ping! Ping! broke out a 
volley of rifle shots, and then with its r-r-r-r-r! 
a Hotchkiss machine gun got to work. A 
staccato bam! bam! bam! as a Colt's machine 
gun joined the chorus. Somewhere troops were 
going into serious action. That was no skirmish- 
ing. 

129 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

We finally crossed the river and dismounted. 
Part of the brigade had gone astray. Rodriguez 
cursed impatiently and incessantly under his 
breath until it joined us. He was a born cavalry 
leader, mad for action. Any sort of waiting 
lacerated his nerves. 

In line, with rifles trailing, we moved across 
the unknown terrain of low, rolling hills. On 
our front there had been no firing. Then all at 
once, directly before us and not far ahead, 
sounded a startled "Qui vive? JJ and an instant's 
silence while the surprised outpost of the enemy 
waited for an answer. "Alertal Alertal" 
sounded his shrill alarm. 

Hell broke open around us then. Rifles, 
machine guns and cannon opened fire all at once. 
Bullets whined above our heads and bursting 
shrapnel fell around us. We had just come to 
an irrigation ditch, six feet wide, with a high wire 
fence on the further bank of it. 

"Stay here till they're all across and look for 
skulkers," Trinidad Rodriguez gave himself 
time to order me, then leaped across the ditch 
and began to run toward the fence. "Come on 
here, boys!" he shouted. 

The men were quickly across. I followed, or 
tried to, and just as my front foot touched the 

130 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

further bank the clay crumbled. Down I went 
into the ditch. 

When I recovered myself in that four feel; 
of mud and water and poked my head up over 
the bank the fence had been demolished. Be- 
yond it countless rifles spat tongues of fire to- 
ward me. But not a living soul was near. The 
night had swallowed up every last one of our 
men. 

Fright had not come yet. I was bewildered. 
I still had my rifle and began to use it. After 
a few discharges there came a violent wrench and 
the barrel parted company with the rest of the 
weapon. It had been shot to pieces in my hands. 
I threw the stock away and got out my revolver 
■ — a Colt .44 single-action, of the frontier model. 

Boom! There was a roar like a field-gun's 
and a flash that lit up the night all round me. 
The wet weapon was outdoing itself in pyro- 
technics, and I was unnecessarily attracting at- 
tention to myself. So, half swimming, half 
wading, I moved down the ditch in the direction 
of the high hill which, looming vaguely, seemed 
half familiar to me. 

T was lost, you understand. I had come at 
night into unknown terrain. I welcomed that 
hill, which seemed to give me back my bearings. 

131 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

I reached the base of it, got out of my ditch 
and began to climb, with some caution, luckily 
for me. For just as I stole over the crest a roar 
and a flash obliterated the night. Two enemy 
field-pieces had been discharged together, almost 
into my face. 

Deeming it more than likely that the flash had 
shown the gunners one startled Teutonic face, 
I rolled down that hill and was once more in my 
ditch. But panic had full possession of me. I 
climbed out on the far side and ran among the 
scattered trees there until I realized that no 
racer can hope to outrun a bullet. Then I 
stopped. 

Phut! Phut! Bullets were hissing into the 
soft irrigated ground all round me, for by ac- 
cident I had gotten into a very dangerous zone 
of dropping cross-fire, while overhead shrapnel 
was searching out blindly for our horses. 

By good luck I knew the trumpet calls. When- 
ever the signal to fire sounded I took what cover 
I could, going on again in what I decided was 
the direction of the Rio Conchas as soon as the 
bugles called "cease firing." 

After a while I found a small gray horse 
standing dejectedly by a tree. I mounted him 
and eventually got among the willows on the 

132 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

river bank. There the horse collapsed under me 
without a warning quiver or groan, and when I 
had wriggled myself loose and groped him over 
I discovered the poor brute must have been shot 
as full of holes as a flute before I ever found him. 

But I had small sympathy to spend on fallen 
horses just then. Cleaning my gory hands as 
best I could on breeches and tunic, I stumbled 
on through the bushes. After a long time I 
came, by accident, to the place where the brigade 
had dismounted to go into action. The mounts 
were mostly gone, but a few still stood there, 
with perhaps a score of men and one officer, 
Lieut. Col. Patricio, who was vastly surprised 
at my sudden appearance from the direction of 
the front. 

Our brigade had been withdrawn within 
twenty minutes of the beginning of the action 
— as soon as it was quite certain the surprise had 
failed. Patricio was waiting there because his 
brother had been killed and he wanted, if pos- 
sible, to take back his body. 

"But," cried the colonel, suddenly warming 
into emotion, "you — where have you been? You, 
valiant German, refused to come back with the 
others ! All night, all by yourself, you have been 
fighting single-handed. Let me embrace you!" 

133 



'My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

He flung his arms about me, to receive a fresh 
surprise. "You are all sticky with something," 
he cried. "What is it?" 

"Blood," I told him simply and truthfully. 
My reputation was made. 

Bravado stirs a Mexican as nothing else can. 
Counterfeit bravado is just as effective as any 
so long as the substitution is not suspected. 
Young Capt. von der Goltz, in his first real en- 
gagement, had got stupidly lost and very badly 
frightened. But of Capt. von der Goltz Col. 
Patricio and his troopers sang the praises for 
days thereafter to every officer and every peon 
soldier they met. He had fought on alone for 
hours after every comrade left him. He had 
bathed himself in the blood of his enemies, up to 
his hips and up to his shoulders. You could see 
it on his clothes. 

By the time Ojinaga fell "El Diable Aleman" 
■ — the German Devil — had become a tradition of 
the Constitutionalist Army. 

Ojinaga fell at New Year's, 1914, the Federal- 
ists retreating across the Rio Grande into the 
United States. We pursued them. And on the 
bank of the river I had a little adventure. 

You remember that when I left Chihuahua, a 
released prisoner, the last person who spoke to 

184 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

me was Col. Carlos Orozco, commanding the 
Sixth Infantry Battalion, and his farewell was 
a threat. 

That Sixth Battalion had been engaged in the 
defense of Ojinaga and had retreated with its 
fellow organizations. When I came up to the 
Rio Grande a small body of fugitives was in 
midstream. My handful of troopers rode in, 
surrounded them and brought them back to 
Mexico. Their heroic commander, who had 
offered no show of resistance, proved to be 
Orozco, with the colors of his outfit wrapped 
round his body, under his blouse! 

The provocation was too much for me. "Don 
Carlos," I asked him, "is it possible you have for- 
gotten me? When we parted last time you 
promised to shoot me if ever we met again. I 
am naturally all on fire to learn whether you are 
thinking of keeping your promise now?" 

Prominent prisoners were getting short shrift 
in those days, and Oroxco preserved a sullen 
silence. But I let him ford the river to safety. 
He eventually got back to Mexico 'City and 
Huerta, by way of San Antonio, Galveston and 
Vera Cruz. The story of his exploit at Ojinaga, 
the sole Federal officer to come out of it alive, 
unwounded, and bringing his colors with him, 

135 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

furnished columns of copy to El Impartial and 
the other papers. Friends and admirers of his 
who hearcf the lion roar at that time may find 
some interest in this less romantic record of his 
adventure. 

I had another account to settle with my old 
acquaintance, Consul Kueck of Chihuahua. 
During the last battle before Ojinaga an officer 
struck up a rifle which he saw a peon aiming at 
my back. The ball whistled over my head. The 
soldier later saw fit to confess the reason for his 
act. He said that a big, fat German — Kueck's 
secretary, he thought — had come to him just 
before we left Chihuahua on our expedition and 
had given him 500 pesos to attempt my life. 

Returning to Chihuahua very soon after New 
Year's, I made it my business to call on Consul 
Kueck. He had cleared out across the border 
to El Paso, just before we got in. 

Failing the principal, I took the liberty of 
arresting Kueck's secretary inside the sacred 
precincts of the Foreign Club. After my ad- 
jutant and he and I had three or four hours' 
private talk and he understood how likely he was 
to occupy the cell in Chihuahua penitentiary 
which had once been mine, he helped me obtain 
copies of certain documents in the consular 

136 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

archives, particularly the letter Kueck had 
written the American Consul affirming himself 
to be fully responsible for my safety, at the very 
time when he was setting Mercado on and tell- 
ing me that he could and would do nothing for 
me. Once I got hold of that, I felt fairly cer- 
tain that Kueck would be moderate in his deal- 
ings with me thereafter. 

Only Gen. Salvador Mercado stood wholly on 
the debit side of my account book. I had heard 
that he had been captured on United States soil, 
along with numerous other fugitive Federal 
officers, and had been put for safekeeping into 
the detention camp at El Paso. 

It chanced that Villa and Raul Madero went 
up to the border for a few days of the winter 
race-meet at Juarez, just across the river from 
El Paso. Don Raul was kind enough to invite 
me too, and I went along in fettle, with a new 
uniform. Our army was in funds and I had all 
the money I wanted. 

From Juarez it was merely a matter of cross- 
ing the international bridge to be in El Paso. I 
went over. I wanted to see Koglmeier, the 
saddler in South Santa Fe Street, and I wanted 
to visit the detention camp. 

I chose to see the camp first, and had the 
137 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

forethought to fill one of the pockets of my over- 
coat with Mexican gold pieces, very welcome to 
my whilom enemies. Poor fellows, they were, 
most of them, in the tattered clothing they had 
worn when captured. Their faces were wan and 
meagre and they were glad enough to accept, 
along with my greeting, the bits of gold I con- 
trived to slip into their hands. 

In the center of the camp we came upon a 
tent more imposing than its mates, though by no 
means palatial. 

"This," said my cicerone, "is the quarters of 
Gen. Mercado, the ranking officer here. Do you 
wish to pay him your respects?" 

As I have said, Salvador Mercado is squat and 
thick in build, with a bull neck, Some day, I 
fear, he is going to die of apoplexy, if he does 
not fall, more gloriously, in action. He shows 
certain apopletic symptoms. For instance, as 
we stepped inside his tent and he saw who one 
of his visitors was, his neck swelled till it 
threatened to burst his collar. 

"My General," I assured him warmly, "it is 
indeed a pleasure and an honor to see you again. 
I trust the climate up here agrees with you?" I 
did not offer him a gold piece when he said 
good-bye. 

138 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 



Fighting For His Life; 

Koglmeier h Murdered 

»■■ . !■ ■ llll ^1 — 

Barnessmaker Is Found Dying in His Shop, With Many 
Evidences of a Desperate Struggle; Had Been Beat- 
en Over the Head With Some Blunt Instru- 
ment; Robbery Th eory Is Abandoned. 



AFTBB apparent!? ■*• -struggling 
desperately with fate assail- 
ants, E. E. Koslraeier, aged 
63 „ years. volunteer fireman aid 
pioneer El Pasoan. was tnurjeied 
In his place o( businas's,-219 6<MHu h'u.iia 
Fe street, some time between t lie hours 
of 7:80 and 9 ocloek Saturday night. 
Five JagRed cut* and holes, soma of 
them being located In tbe back of the 
head, and four wounds of a similar na- 
ture Inflicted on the face, resulted In 
his death. Life was all but extinct 
when Mr. Koslraeier was found lying 
In a pool of blood a&out the center of 
the room ol his harness and eiddlery 
Shop. He was. in Ma shirt sleeves 
"Robbery Is not believed to have been 
the motive for the crime. 

William Oleseler. a merchants' po- 
liceman, was the first' one to discover 
Mr. Koelmeier. He had passed the shop 
on his. llrfli round aU7 ocloek Saturday 
night when it U said that he spoke U 
Mr. Koglmeier. Returning to the sn<, 

B a bis second round at 9:15 ocj;- 
leseler saw the door of the ». 
open. GleselsT -walked In. He / 
prtieentlmanL ■ {hat. something- 
wrong. Th* glat'e from 
flashlight disclosed the Li 
Koglmeier. Ha> wat, 
U Ivas- evR jw j-« 
minut 



removed to a local undertaking (stab* 
lishment. 

Evidencea of a R4ru«;gti>. 

Despite .the fact that the first blow 
evidently had been delivered when his 
back was turned to his murderers, Mr. 
Koglmeier must have strugglPd before 
he was beaten down tor the. last time. 
Trails of blood ran from almost every 
section of the room, showing that the 
struggle had been long before the vic- 
tim was finally compelled to 'succumb 
from the. blows dealt him with either 
a dull hatchet or some Iron instrument. 
Theory of the Crime. 

The bflict Is that two men called at 
the hiunej-3 shop a little>«.fter 7 ocloek. 
They had gone there under Win pl- 
ot making a purchase. Bridle 1 
nesa ahd collars 'hang atippenr", 
the celling of the plact, .*Af 
murderers had evldentt''^ 
horse collar ae t*»p y 



Photograph of a clipping from the El Paso Herald of 

December 22, 1913. No motive has ever been discovered for 

the crime, other than the theory advanced by Captain von 

der Goltz. 



139 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

From the detention camp I went to Kogl- 
meier's shop in South Santa Fe Street. Both 
front and rear doors were standing open, and 
through the back of one I could see Koglmeier's 
horse, a beast I had often ridden, switching its 
tail in the yard, which was its stable. I went 
into the store. "Koglmeier!" I called. "Oh, 
Koglmeier!" 

From the side of the shop stepped out a man 
on whom I had never set eyes before. 

"Koglmeier ain't here." 

"But he must be here," I insisted. "I can see 
his horse out there in the yard." 

"Yes," said the man, "the horse is here, but 
Koglmeier ain't. Nor he won't be. It just 
happens that Koglmeier's dead." 

"When did he die?" 

"The 23d of last December," said the man. 
"But he didn't die. He got murdered." 

On the night of that 23d of December, Kogl- 
meier, the quietest, most inoffensive man in El 
Paso, had been murdered in his shop. It looked, 
said my informant, "like his head had been beat 
in with a hatchet, or something." Robbery ap- 
parently had not been the motive, for his pos- 
sessions were untouched. If he had made an 
outcry it had not attracted attention, perhaps 

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My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

because a carrousel was going full blast in the 
vacant lot beside his place of business. The 
authorities were utterly at sea, and still are. The 
United States Department of Justice agents 
told me they could find no motive for the murder. 
I knew the motive. Koglmeier had kept "my 
documents" for me; therefore Imperial Germany 
had willed he die. 

Koglmeier was the only German in El Paso 
who was a friend of mine, and knew of the exist- 
ence of those documents which I had been forced 
to give up through the agency of Mercado's 
firing squads. 

His end subdued the festive spirit in me and 
I was not sorry when we started back for the 
interior of Mexico. 

Torreon was taken by Villa on April 2, 1914, 
and we settled down there for a brief period of 
rest and recuperation. Rest! Torreon stands 
out in my memory as the scene of the most hectic 
activity I have indulged in. Raul Madero and 
I have since laughed over the ludicrousness of it. 
But at the time it was deadly serious. My repu- 
tation was at stake. I managed to save it barely 
by the skin of its teeth. 

Chief Trinidad Rodriguez got twenty machine 
guns down from the United States and turned 

141 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

them over to me. "Train your gun crews and 
get the platoons ready for field service," he 
ordered. "You can have three weeks. Then I 
shall need them." 

Without a word I saluted and turned on my 
heel. I could not very well tell my general that 
I had never in my life touched even the tip of 
one finger to a machine gun. 

The guns arrived next day, as promised They 
had been sent to us bare, just the barrels and 
tripods. There were no holsters, no pack saddles 
for either guns or ammunition, not one of the 
accessories which equip a machine gun company 
for action. I had to start from the ground, in 
literal truth. And I had not a soul to advise me 
how to begin. 

We loaded the guns onto our wagons, tooK 
them over to camp and laid them side by side in 
a long row down the center of an empty ware- 
house in Torreon. 

That satisfied me for one afteronon. I wen6 
over to Gen. Rodriguez's quarters. 

"I've got the guns," I reported. 

"Good!" he cried. "I shall want the platoons 
ready for action in three weeks. Not a dajr 
later." 



142 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

It was up to me to have them ready. So I got 
busy at once. 

My first move was an abduction. There hap- 
pened to be in Torreon jail at that time a first 
class bank robber named Jefferson, who was 
being held for the arrival of extradition papers 
from Texas. The day after my guns arrived 
Jefferson escaped, and though the authorities 
made diligent search they failed to find him. He 
knew more about machine guns than I did. His 
profession had made him an excellent mechanic. 
Furthermore, he had Yankee ingenuity and 
American "git up and git." We soon had all 
twenty guns set up in working order. 

Then came the problem of the gun crews. Our 
Indians, slow, thick-headed, stubborn and stolid, 
were no fit material for such highly specialized 
work. Machine gun manipulation requires 
special qualifications in every man concerned. 
Three men compose the crew. One squats behind 
the shield and pulls the trigger. The second, 
prone, slides the clips of cartridges into the 
breach. The third passes up the supply of am- 
munition. At any moment the gun may heat and 
jam. Also, at any moment any one of the trio 
may fall, yet his work must be carried on. I 
have seen a gunner sit on the dying body of a 

143 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

comrade and cooly aim and fire, the action being 
so hot there was not time to drag the wounded 
man aside. You cannot take an Indian wild from 
the hills and in twenty-one days fit him to do 
such work as that by any course of training. 

My only resort was to get my gun crews ready 
made. 

A brigade not far away from ours possessed 
machine gun platoons which were the pride of its 
heart. I looked at them, and broke first the 
Tenth and then the Eight Commandment. 

To a wise old sergeant I gave a hundred pesos. 

"Juan," I told him, "get the men of those 
machine gun crews drunk in this quarter of 
Torreon. And encourage them to be noisy." 

Juan obeyed instructions. Once the beer 
and mezcal took hold, the men I wanted became 
boisterous enough to justify our provost guard 
in running them all in. The rest was simple. 
The breach of discipline was condoned by Gen. 
Rodriguez only on condition that the culprits 
were turned over to him for further discipline. 

So I got my gun crews. I was beginning to 
have hopes. The best saddler in the city was 
making holsters. When I first approached him 
with an order he had promptly thrown up his 



144 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

hands. "There is not a scrap of leather left in 
Torreon," he said. 

I instantly thought of chair backs. In Spanish 
countries furniture upholstered in old carved 
Cordovan leather is an heirloom. In time of war 
ruthlessness is a useful quality. I soon pre- 
sented my saddler with sufficient leather for my 
purpose and could turn my attention to pack 
saddles. Not even the sawbuck frames were pro- 
curable in Torreon, but wood was plenty. And 
there was a jail filled with idle prisoners. Ten 
days after the first sight of my guns I was able 
to report to Gen. Rodriguez that the platoons 
were coming along. 

"But I have no mules for them yet," I hinted. 

He sent a hundred next day, beauties, fat, 
strong, in the pink of condition. But they had 
come straight down from the mesa. They could 
be trusted to kick saddles, guns, tripods, holsters 
and ammunition cases into nothing at the least 
provocation. 

Torreon was celebrating its new Constitution- 
alism with daily bull rights. Each afternoon, 
while the fight was on, the plaza before the en- 
trance to the ring was crowded with public rigs 
in waiting, all drawn by sorry-looking mules, 



145 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

half fed and too worn out to have a single kick 
left in them. 

With a squad of troopers I descended on the 
plaza one day. No cabbie anywhere is markedly 
shy or retiring, and these were hill-bred mule- 
teros. But we got the mules in the end. 

"You are getting the best of the bargain," I 
assured them. "I am only swapping with you. 
In the corral I have a hundred fine, strong, new 
mules worth three times as much as these played- 
out beasts you are getting rid of. You can have 
the nice new ones to-morrow." 

If Gen. Trinidad ever guessed how thoroughly 
improvised his favorite outfit was — the second in 
command a bank robber on enforced vacation, 
the gunners kidnapped, the equipment made by 
forced labor from commandeered material, and 
the mules snatched rudely from between the 
shafts of cabs — he made no comment. 

He did not live long to enjoy the fruits of my 
labors. In mid-June, during the ten-day attack 
which resulted in the fall of Zacatecas, he was 
mortally wounded. 

I shall always remember that day, not only 
for the death of my chief, but for a personal bit 
of adventure. 

I was temporarily away from my guns with 
146 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

some riflemen in a trench. The enemy fire was 
very hot and the men became exceedingly restive. 
Something had to be done to steady them, for 
there was no cover of any sort on the bullet- 
swept, shrapnel-searched plain behind us. Re- 
treat was impossible. There were plenty of 
horrors in the situation — the blazing sun, the 
sense of isolation, the cries and curses of the men 
who were being struck. And there was the 
cactus. 

Unless you have been under fire of high-power 
rifles in a region where the common broad-leaved 
castus grows you cannot guess its nerve-shaking 
possibilities. A jacketed bullet can pierce a score 
of leaves without much diminution of its velocity, 
and as it goes through the thick, juicy flesh, it lets 
out a sound like the spitting of some gigantic 
cat. Ten Mauser bullets piercing cactus can 
make you believe a whole battalion is concen- 
trating its fire on your one small but precious 
person. 

The men were getting demoralized. If they 
broke I was done for. If I stayed in the trench 
alone the Federals would eventually get me and 
stand me up to the nearest wall. If I retreated 
with them, nothing was gained. No man can 
hope to outrun a bullet. 

147 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

I stood up, exposing my body from mid-thigh 
upward to that withering fire, and took out my 
cigarette case. The nearest men watched side- 
wise, waiting to see me fall. 

By some fortune I was not hit, and after a 
moment looked down at the man beside me. 

"Hello, Pablo!" I said, "why aren't you 
smoking, too?" I offered my case to him, but 
took good care to stretch out my arm quite level. 
To get at the contents he had to rise to his feet. 

Habit won. He did not even hesitate, and I 
held my cigarette, Mexican fashion, for him to 
take a light. Once committed in that fashion, he 
was too proud to show the white feather, and 
he and I smoked our cigarettes out while the 
bullets flew. It was the longest cigarette, I 
think, I ever smoked, but it turned the trick. We 
held on to that trench till darkness put an end 
to the fire. 

After the capture of Zacatecas I went to the 
staff of Gen. Raul Madero, with the rank of 
Major. The invitation had been extended several 
times before. Now that Trinidad was dead, 
there was nothing to hold me back, and I very 
gladly joined the official family of the brother 
of the murdered President. Since my first as- 
sociation with him, before Ojinaga, he had im- 

148 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

pressed me as the ablest man I had seen south of 
the Rio Grande. 

The closer and constant contact entailed by 
my becoming a member of his staff confirmed 
that feeling. Raul Madero has clarity of in- 
telligence, an encyclopaedic grasp of Mexican 
affairs, social, religious, political and financial, 
and a winning personality that masks abundant 
energy and determination. 

I was associated with him for only six weeks. 
On June 28th, 1914, you remember, the Arch- 
duke Francis Ferdinand of Austria was assassin- 
ated. All through July the Austrian Govern- 
ment was formulating its demands on Serbia, 
which culminated in the ultimatum of July 23. 
Long before that I had formed my opinion as to 
which way the wind was to blow. And I had a 
sufficiently conceited notion of my usefulness as 
a trained and. experienced agent to believe that 
when the general European disturbance should 
break out my days as a soldier of fortune in 
Mexico would be ended. 

Toward the end of July a stranger brought 
me credentials proving him a messenger from 
Consul Kueck in El Paso. 

"The Consul," he told me, "wishes to ask you 
one question, and the answer is a yes or a no. 

149 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

This is the question: In case your Government 
wished your services again, could she expect to 
receive them?" 

"In case of war — yes," I answered. 

It was not very long before I received a tele- 
gram from Kueck. "Come," was all it said. 



CHAPTER VII. 

War. I re-enter the German service 

and am appointed aide to Captain von Papen. 

The German conception of neutrality 

and horn to make use of it. The 

plot against the Welland Canal. 

f HE meaning of Kueck's telegram was plain. 
*■ War had come at last, the war that we had 
expected and prepared for during so many years. 
My country was at war and I must leave what- 
ever I was doing and return to its service. 

I went to Raul Madero with the telegram. 

"It has come,' I said. "War. I shall have to 
go. 

We had spoken together too often, during the 
past few weeks, of my duty in the event of hos- 
tilities, for any long discussion to be necessary 
now. I asked for and received all that I believed 
to be necessary — a leave of absence for six 
months with the privilege of extension. The 
next day, August 3, 1914, I said good-bye to my 
troops and to my commander and hastened north 
to El Paso. 

151 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

At the Hotel el Paso del Norte, I met my 
former enemies, Kueck and his stout secretary. 
We had dinner together and he gave me letters 
containing instructions to proceed to New York 
and to place myself at the disposal of Captain 
Franz von Papen, the German military attache 
at Washington. 

"When will Captain von Papen be in New 
York?" I asked. 

"I have just received a communication from 
Papen," replied Kueck, adding with a gratified 
smile, "I am keeping him informed of conditions 
along the border. He will be in New York two 
weeks from to-day." 

There was no necessity for haste then, and I 
remained in El Paso for five days longer, keep- 
ing my eyes and ears open and learning, among 
other things, more "facts" about Mexico than I 
could have acquired in Mexico itself in a life time. 
"There are lies, damned lies and El Pasograms," 
some one has said. I collected enough of the 
last-named to cheer me on my way to Washing- 
ton and to make me marvel that Rome had ever 
been called the father of lies. No wonder news- 
paper correspondents like to report Mexican 
news from El Paso. 

Washington was technically on vacation at the 
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My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

time, but there was an unwonted air of excite- 
ment about the city — far greater than formerly- 
existed when Congress was in full session. At 
the German Embassy I found only a few clerks ; 
but letters from Newport, to which the Am- 
bassador and his staff had gone for the summer, 
informed me that Captain von Papen would 
meet me in New York in a fortnight. And then 
I learned for the first time that it was impossible 
for me to reach Germany, but that I was to be 
assigned to work in the United States. 

I knew what that meant, of course, and I was 
not wholly unprepared for it. Secret agents 
could be very useful in a neutral country, 
and I knew from my acquaintance with German 
methods in Europe, that plans would already 
have been made for conserving German interests 
in the United States. What those plans were I 
did not know; but my only immediate concern 
was to remove any possible suspicion from my- 
self by doing something that on the surface 
would seem to be absolutely idiotic. 

I became violently and noisily pro-German. 
On the train I entered into arguments (as a 
matter of fact I could not have escaped them if 
I tried) in which I stoutly defended the invasion 
of Belgium and prophecied an early victory for 

153 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Germany. And when I arrived in New York 
I registered at the Holland House, where my 
actions would be more conspicuous than at one 
of the larger hotels, and proceeded to make my- 
self as noticeable as possible by spending a great 
deal more money than I could afford — and talk- 
ing. In a day or two the reporters were on my 
trail and I became their obliging prey. What I 
told them I do not now remember in its entirety, 
but newspaper clippings of the day assure me 
that I made many wild and bombastic statements, 
promising that Paris would be captured in a very 
few weeks — in a word uttering the most flagrant 
nonsense. The reporters decided that I was a 
fool and deftly conveyed that impression to their 
readers. And in a very brief time I had the 
satisfaction of learning that I was everywhere 
regarded as a person of considerably more 
loquacity than intelligence. 

That was the very reputation I had attempted 
to get. I wanted to be known — and widely — 
as a braggart, a spendthrift, a rattlebrain, for the 
very excellent reason that in no other way could 
I so easily divert suspicion from myself later on. 
I was a German, and consequently under the 
surveillance of enemy secret agents, with whom 
— oh, believe me! — the United States was filled. 

154 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

It was impossible for me to escape some notice. 
Since that was the case, the safest course for me 
to pursue was to comport myself in such a way 
that all interested persons would report (as I 
afterwards learned they did report) that I was 
not worth watching, since no sane government 
would ever employ me. 

While I was engaged in achieving this enviable 
reputation, I had managed to keep in touch with 
the Imperial German Consulate in New York, 
and on August 21 I had. received from the Vice- 
Consul, Dr. Kraske, a note informing me that 
"the gentleman who is interested in you" — 
Captain von Papen — "will meet you next morn- 
ing at the Consulate." That letter was to figure 
two years later in the trial of Captain Hans 
Tauscher. I reproduce it here. You might note 
that it is addressed to "Baron von der Goltz," 
although my card did not bear that title, and I 
had registered at the Holland House under my 
Mexican military title of Major. 

Upon the following morning I went to that 
old building at Number Eleven Broadway. There 
in a little room in the offices of the Imperial 
German Consulate began a series of meetings 
that were designed to bear fruit of the greatest 
consequences to the United States — that would, 

155 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

had they been successful, have made American 
neutrality a lie and would have perhaps drawn 
the United States into a serious conflict with 
England, if not into actual war. 

I remember von Papen's enthusiasm as he 
outlined the general program to me. "It was 
merely a question of tying their hands" — that 
was the burden of his statements, time and again. 
We could hope for nothing from American neu- 
trality ; it was a fraud, a deception. Washington 
could not see the German viewpoint at all. 
Everything was done to favor England. Why, 
the entire country was supporting the allies — 
the government, the press, the people — all of 
them ! Nowhere was there a good word for Ger- 
many. And that in spite of the excellent propa- 
ganda that Germany was conducting. I remem- 
ber that the failure of German propaganda was 
an especially sore spot with him. 

"How about the German- Americans ?" I asked 
him upon one occasion. 

He made a sound that was between a grunt 
and a cough. 

"I am attending to them," was his reply. I 
did not understand what he meant until much 
later. 

We talked much of American participation in 
158 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

the war in those days. Papen was convinced that 
it would come sooner or later ; and certainly upon 
the side of the Entente — unless the German- 
Americans could be brought into line. They 
were being attended to, he would repeat, but 
meantime it was necessary for us to decide upon 
some immediate action. Of course there was 
Mexico to be considered. It was too bad that 
Huerta had fallen. What did I think of Villa? 
Could he be persuaded to cause a diversion if the 
United States abandoned its neutrality? 

I told him that I thought it very unlikely. "He 
is not very friendly toward Germans," I said, 
"and he appreciates the importance of keeping on 
good terms with the United States. No, I don't 
think you can reach him— now. Later on, he 
may take a different attitude — when we have had 
a few more victories." 

Von Papen nodded. I was probably right, he 
thought. We must show these ignorant people 
how powerful the Germans were. It would have 
a great moral effect. But that was for the future. 
Meantime what did I think of this letter as a 
suggestion for possible immediate action? 

"This letter" was from a man named Schu- 
macher, who lived in Oregon, at Eden Bower 
Farm. He had written to the Embassy, sug- 

157 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

gesting that we secretly fit out motor boats armed 
with machine guns, and using Buffalo, Detroit, 
Cleveland and Chicago as bases, make raids upon 
Canadian cities and towns on the Great Lakes. 

There were some good features to the plan — 
its value as a means of terrorizing Canadians, 
for instance — but it was doubtful whether at that 
time we could carry it out successfully. Then, 
too, we could not be sure whether it was not 
merely a trap for us. Papen had been making 
inquiries about Schumacher and was not entirely 
satisfied as to his good faith. 

There were a number of other schemes which 
we considered at this time. One was to equip 
reservists of the German Army, then in the 
United States, and co-operating with German 
warships then in the Pacific Ocean to invade 
Canada from the State of Washington. This 
plan was abandoned because of the impossibility 
of securing enough artillery for our purposes. 

Another plan that we considered more care- 
fully, involved an expedition against Jamaica. 
This was a much more feasible scheme than any 
that had been proposed thus far, and we spent 
many days over it. Jamaica was none too well de- 
fended, and it seemed fairly probable that with 
an army of ragamuffins which I could easily 

158 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

recruit in Mexico and Central America, we could 
make a success of it. Arms were easy to secure; 
in fact, we had a very well equipped arsenal in 
Xew York; and filibustering had become so 
common since the outbreak of the Mexican revo- 
lution, that it would be easy to obtain what ad- 
ditional material we needed without disclosing 
our purpose. On the whole the idea looked 
promising, and matters had gone so far that von 
Papen secured my appointment as captain, so 
that in the event of my being captured on British 
soil with arms in my hand, I should be treated as 
a prisoner of war. 

Then just when we were making final prepara- 
tions for my departure from New York, von 
Papen came to me in great excitement and said 
he had come upon a plan that would serve our 
purposes to perfection. Canada was, after all, 
our principal objective; we could strike a telling 
blow against it, and at the same time create con- 
sternation throughout America by blowing up 
the canals which connected the Great Lakes! 

"It is comparatively simple," said von Papen. 
"If we blow up the locks of these canals, the 
main railway lines of Canada and the principal 
grain elevators will be crippled. Immediately 
we shall destroy one of England's chief sources 

159 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

of food supply as well as hamper the transporta- 
tion of war materials. Canada will be thrown 
into a panic and public opinion will demand that 
her troops be held for home defense. But best 
of all, it will make the Canadians believe that the 
thousands of German reservists and the millions 
of German- Americans in the United States are 
planning active military operations against the 
Dominion." 

I looked at him in surprise. Where had he 
got such a plan? Papen enlightened me with his 
next words. 

Two men — not Germans but violently anti- 
English — had come to him with the suggestion, 
he said. It was in a very indefinite form as yet, 
but the idea was certainly worth careful consider- 
ation. He wished me to discuss the matter with 
the two men at my hotel. 

It did seem a good plan. As I discussed it the 
next evening with the two men, whom von Papen 
had sent to me, it seemed entirely practicable and 
immensely important. Together we went over 
the maps and diagrams they had brought with 
them, which showed the vulnerable points of the 
different canals and railways. After a number 
of conferences with them and with von Papen, 



160 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

the plot took definite shape as a plan to blow up 
the Welland Canal. 

"It can be done," I told von Papen one day, 
and together we discussed the details. Finally 
von Papen looked up from the notes we had been 
examining. 

"I think it will do admirably," he said. "Will 
you undertake it?" 

I nodded. 

"Good," said von Papen. "I shall leave the 
details to you — but keep me informed of your 
needs and I shall see that they are taken care of." 

So began the plot which was literally to carry 
the war into America. My first need was for 
men, and for help in getting these I appealed to 
von Papen, who obligingly furnished me with a 
letter of introduction — made out in the name of 
Bridgman H. Taylor — to Mr. Luederitz, the 
German Consul at Baltimore. There were several 
German ships interned at that port, and we felt 
that we should have no difficulty in recruiting our 
force from them. 

Before I went to Baltimore, however, I did 
engage one man, Charles Tucker, alias Tuch- 
haendler, who had already had some dealings with 
the two men who originally proposed the scheme. 



161 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Tucker accompanied me to Baltimore, and 
together we paid a visit to Consul Luederitz. 
The consul glanced at the letter I presented to 
him. 

"Captain von Papen requests me to give you 
all the assistance you may ask for, Major von der 
Goltz," he said, intimating by the use of my 
name that he had previously been informed of the 
enterprise. "I shall be happy to do anything in 
my power. What is it you wish?" 

Men, I told him, were my chief need at the 
moment. He said that there should be no dif- 
ficulty about securing them. There was a Ger- 
man ship in the harbor at the time, and we could 
doubtless make use of part of the crew and an 
officer, if we desired. He offered me his visiting 
card, on the back of which he wrote a note of 
recommendation to the captain of the ship. But 
while we were talking this man entered the office 
and we made our preliminary arrangements 
there. 

The following day, a Sunday, Tucker and I 
visited the ship and after dinner selected our men, 
who were informed of their prospective duties. I 
also listened to the news that was being received 
on board by wireless; for the captain was still 
allowed to receive messages, although the harbor 

162 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

authorities had forbidden him to use his ap- 
paratus for sending purposes. 

I needed nothing more in Baltimore, so far as 
my present plans were concerned, but at Consul 
Luederitz's suggestion, I decided to furnish my- 
self with a passport, made out in my nom de 
guerre of Bridgman Taylor. Luederitz was of 
the opinion that it might be useful at some future 
time as a means of proving that I was an Ameri- 
can citizen, and accordingly we had one of the 
clerks make out an application, which was duly 
forwarded to Washington; and on August 31st 
the State Department furnished the non-exist- 
ent Mr. Bridgman H. Taylor with a very com- 
forting, although as it turned out, a decidedly 
dangerous document. One other thing I needed 
at the moment — a pistol, for my own was out of 
order. This Mr. Luederitz provided me with, 
from the effects of an Austrian who had com- 
mitted suicide in Baltimore, not long before, and 
whose property, in the absence of an Austrian 
Consulate in the city, had been turned over to 
the German Consul. 

The days immediately following my return to 
New York were filled with preparations for our 
coup. I engaged three additional men to act as 
my lieutenants, acquainted them with the main 

163 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

objects of our plan and agreed to pay them daily 
while in New York, and to add a bonus when 
our enterprise should succeed. These men had 
all been well recommended to me, and I knew 
I could trust them thoroughly. One, Fritzen, 
who was later captured in Los Angeles, had been 
a purser on a Russian ship. A second, Busse, 
was a commercial agent who had lived for many 
years in England; the third bore the Italian 
name of Covani. 

Meantime I saw von Papen frequently, and had 
on one occasion received from him a check for 
two hundred dollars, which I needed for the 
sailors who were coming from Baltimore. That 
check, which is reproduced in this book, was to 
prove a singularly disastrous piece of paper, for 
in order to avoid connecting my name with that 
of von Papen, it was made out to Bridgman 
Taylor. I cashed it through a friend, Frederick 
Stallforth, whose brother, Alberto Stallforth, 
had been the German Consul at Parral when I 
was there. He, incidentally, was later implicated 
in the Rintelen trial and was detained for a time 
on Ellis Island, from which he was subsequently 
released. 

Mr. Stallforth lifted his eyebrows when he saw 
the name on the check. I smiled. 

164 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

"I am Bridgman Taylor," I told him. He 
laughed, but said nothing, merely getting the 
check cashed for me at the German Club on 
Central Park South, of which he was a member. 

In a few days everything was ready. My men 
had arrived from Baltimore, my plans were 
definitely made — I needed but one thing: the 
explosives. These, von Papen told me, I could 
obtain through Captain Hans Tauscher, the 
American agent of the Krupps, which means, in 
effect, the German Government. 

It has been asserted many times in the last 
year that the charges against Capt. Tauscher 
were utterly unfounded. It is easy to under- 
stand the motives of this gentleman's defenders. 
There are many people still in this country whose 
friendship with the amiable captain would wear 
a decidedly suspicious look were his complicity 
in the anti- American plots of the first two years 
of the war to be proved. I shall not quarrel with 
these people. But reproduced in this book are 
four documents, the originals of which are in the 
possession of the Department of Justice, which 
tell their own story to the curious and are a fair 
indication of the way I secured the explosives I 
needed for my expedition. 

These documents show: 
165 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

First, that on September 5, 1914, Captain 
Tauscher, American representative of the 
Krupps, ordered from the du Pont de Nemours 
Powder Company, 300 pounds of sixty per cent- 
dynamite to be delivered to bearer, "Mr. Bridg- 
man Taylor," and to be charged to Captain 
Tauscher. 

Second, that on September 11th, the du Pont 
Company sent Captain Tauscher a bill for the 
same amount of dynamite delivered to Bridgman 
man Taylor, New York City, on September 5th; 
and on September 16th, they sent him a second 
bill for forty-five feet of fuse delivered to Bridg- 
man Taylor on September 13th — the total of 
the two bills amounting to $31.13. 

Third, that on December 29, 1914, Tauscher 
sent a bill to Captain von Papen tor a total 
amount of $503.24. The third item, dated Sep- 
tember 11th, was for $31.13. 

Is it difficult to tell of whom I got my ex- 
plosives or who eventually paid for them? I got 
the dynamite at any rate, by calling for it myself 
at one of the company's barges in a motor boat, 
and taking it away in suitcases. At 146th Street 
and the Hudson River we left the boat, and, 
carrying the explosives with us, went to the 
German Club, where I applied to von Papen for 

166 



U^HT^jfyko &jL x t/t . /y> 



«</yt 



^>4 Jt-rv^ dh^i ■*> Qtuv, 



Before going to Baltimore, "Mr. Bridgeman Taylor" — Captain 
von der Goltz — received this letter from Capt. von Papen. 
Translated it reads : 

New York, 27. VIII. 14. 

I request the Consuls in Baltimore and St. Paul to give the bearer of 
this letter — Mr. Bridgeman Taylor — all the assistance he may ask for. 

von Papen, 
Captain in the General Staff of the Army 

and Military Attache. 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

automatic pistols, batteries, detonators, and wire 
for expolding the dynamite. Von Papen 
promised them in two or three days — and he kept 
his word* 

Bit by bit, all this material was removed from 1 
the German Club — in suitcases and via taxi-cab. 
They were exciting little rides we took those days, 
and my heart was often in my mouth when our 
chauffeur turned corners in approved New York 
fashion. But luckily there were no accidents and 
in a day or so all of our materials were stored 
away; part of them in my apartments — not in 
the Holland House, alas ! — but in a cheap section 
of Harlem. For von der Goltz, the spendthrift, 
the braggart, was seen no longer in the gay 
places of New York. He had spent all his 
money, and now, no longer of interest to the 
newspapers — or to the secret agents of the allies 
— had taken a two dollar and a half room in 
Harlem where he could repent his follies — and 
be as inconspicuous as he pleased. 

*It is interesting- to remember that Captain von Papen 
had in the earlier part of the year, while he was still 
in Mexico, conducted an investigation into the types of ex- 
plosives used in Mexico for similar enterprises. This investi- 
gation had been undertaken at the request of the German 
Ministry of War. Letters regarding this matter were found 
in Captain von Papen's effects) by the British authorities, and 
are printed in the British White Papers, Miscellaneous No. 6 
(1916). 

167 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

So it came about that toward the middle of 
September we five — Fritzen, Busse, Tucker, 
Covani and- myself — took train for Buffalo, 
armed with dynamite, automatic guns, deton- 
ators and other necessary implements, and pro- 
ceeded absolutely unmolested, to go to Buffalo. 
There I engaged rooms at 198 Delaware Avenue 
and began to reconnoitre the ground. I made 
a trip or two over the Niagara River via aero- 
plane, with an aviator who unquestionably 
thought me mad and charged accordingly; and 
at the suggestion of von Papen, I secured money 
for my expenses from a Buffalo lawyer, John 
Ryan. 

It had been decided that von Papen should let 
us know when the Canadian troops were about 
to leave camp so that we might strike at the 
psychological moment. A telegram came from 
him, signed with the non-committal name of 
Steffens, telling me that Ryan had money and 
instructions. Ryan gave me the money, as I 
have stated, but insisted that he had no instruc- 
tions whatever. 

Then, after a stay of several days in Niagara, 
during which we did nothing but exchange futile 
telegrams with Ryan and "Mr. Steffens" — we 
learned that the first contingent of Canadian 

168 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

troops had left the camp- — and my men and I 
returned to New York, unsuccessful. 

Our failure was greater than appears on the 
surface, for my men and I were a blind. Our 
equipment, our loud talking, our aggressive pro- 
Germanism — even our secret preparations, which 
had not been secret enough — were intended 
primarily to distract attention from other and 
far more dangerous activities. 

We had been watched by United States Secret 
Service men from the very beginning of our 
enterprise. During our entire stay in Buffalo 
and Niagara, we had been under the surveillance 
of men who were merely waiting for us to make 
their suspicions a certainty by some positive at- 
tempt against the peace of the United States. 
We knew it and wanted it to be so. 

And while they were waiting for sufficient 
cause to arrest us, other men, totally unsuspected, 
were making their way down through Canada, 
intent upon destroying all of the bridges and 
canal locks in the lake region! 

You can see what the effect would have been 
had our plan succeeded — Canada crippled and 
terrorized — England robbed of the troops which 
Canada was even then preparing to send her, 
but which would have been forced to remain at 

169 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

home to defend the border. But far more de- 
sirable in German eyes, the United States would 
have been convicted in "the sight of the world of 
criminal negligence. For my band of men — the 
obvious perpetrators of one crime had been act- 
ing suspiciously for weeks. And yet, in spite of 
that, we wore at liberty. The United States had 
made no effort to apprehend ns. 

Good fortune saved the United States from 
serious international complications at that time. 
While we were waiting for word from von Papen 
the Canadian troops had left Valeartier Camp, 
and were then on their way to England. Part 
of our object had been removed, and for the rest 
— well, the plan would keep, we thought. 

It was a disappointed von Papen whom I met 
on my return to New York — a rather crest-fallen 
person, far different from the urbane soldier 
that Washington knew in those days. We 
commiserated with each other upon our failure, 
and talked of the better luck that we should have 
next time. I did not know that there was to be 
no next time for me. 

For it came about that Abteilung III B., the 
Intelligence Department of the General Staff 
wished some first-hand information about con- 
ditions in the United States and in Mexico; and 

170 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

I, who knew both countries (and who was the 
possessor of an American passport bearing an 
American name) was selected to go. 

On October 8th, 1914, Bridgman Taylor 
waved farewell to New York from the deck of 
an Italian steamer, bound for Genoa. The 
curious might have been interested to know that 
in Mr. Taylor's trunk were letters of recom- 
mendation to various German Consuls in Italy; 
strangely enough, they bore the name of Horst 
von der Goltz within them, and the signature of 
each was "von Papen." 

I had said goodbye to von Papen the night 
before, at the German Club. He had asked me 
to turn over to him all the fire-arms I had, for 
use again when needed. 

We talked of the war that night, and of Ger- 
many, which I had not seen in two years. And 
we spoke of the United States, and of what I 
was to tell them "over there." 

"Say that they need not worry about this 
country," he told me. "The United States may 
still join us in the splendid fight we are making. 
But if they do not it is of small moment. And 
always remember that if things look bad, for us, 
something will happen over here" 

I left him, speculating upon the "something" 
171 



My Adventures as a German Seeret Agent 

that would happen; for then I did not know of 
all the plans that were in my captain's head. I 
was to learn more about them later on — and I 
was to know a hitter disgust at the things that 
men may do in the name of patriotism. But of 
those things I will speak in their proper place. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

/ go to Germany on a false passport. 

Italy in the early days of the war. I meet the 

Kaiser and talk to him about Mexico 

and the United States. 

IT was peaceful sailing. in those early days of 
* the war, and our ship, the Duca d'Aosta, 
reached Genoa with no mishap. I had but one 
moment of trepidation on the voyage, for on the 
last day the ship was hailed by a British cruiser. 
Here, I thought, was where I should put my 
passport to the test, but as it happened, our ship 
was not searched. An officer came alongside 
inquiring, among other things, if there were any 
Germans on board, but he accepted the captain's 
assurance that there were none — to my great 
relief. 

Genoa, like all the rest of the world, was in a 
state of great excitement in those days. Rumors 
as to the possible course of the Italian Govern- 
ment were flying about everywhere, and one 
could hear in an hour as many conflicting state- 

173 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

merits of the Government's intentions as he might 
wish. The country was a battlefield of the 
propagandists at the moment. Nearly all of the 
German consuls, who had been forced to leave 
Africa at the declaration of war, had taken np 
their quarters in Italy, and were busily dissemin- 
ating pro-German literature of all sorts. I was 
bold, too, that the French Ambassador had 
already spent large sums of money buying 
Italian papers, in which to present the Allied 
cause to the as yet neutral people of Italy. And 
when I went into the office of the Imperial Ger- 
man Consul General, von Nerf, I was amused 
to see a huge pile of copies of — of all papers in 
the world! — the Berlin Vorwaerts, which had 
been imported for distribution throughout the 
country. Here was a pretty comedy! That 
newspaper, which during its entire existence had 
been the bitterest foe of German autocracy in the 
Empire, had become a. propagandist sheet for its 
former enemy and was now being used as a lure 
for the hesitating sympathies of the Italian 
people! In German, French and Italian editions 
it was spread about the country, carrying the 
message of Teutonic righteousness to the unin- 
formed. 

I found von Nerf to be a large man, with 
174 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

whiskers that recalled those of Tirpitz, although 
without that gentleman's temperament or em- 
bonpoint. He assured me that Italy would never 
enter the war; there were too many factions in 
the country which would oppose such a step. 

"Why, consider," he bade me, "we have the 
three most important parties on our side. The 
Catholics will never consent to a break with 
Germany; the business men are all our staunch 
partisans; and the Labor Party is too violently 
opposed to war ever to consider entering it. 
Besides," he continued, "laboring men all over 
the world know that it is in Germany that the 
Labor Party has reached its greatest strength. 
Why, then, should they consider taking sides 
against us?" 

"But do you think that there is any chance of 
Italy entering the war on our side?" I asked him. 

Von Nerf shrugged his shoulders. "It is 
doubtful," was his reply. "What could they do 
in their situation?" 

I had come to von Nerf with von Papen's 
letter of introduction, to ask for assistance in 
reaching Germany. Accordingly he arranged for 
my passage, and soon I was on a train bound for 
Milan and Kufstein, where I was to change for 
the train to Munich. At that time the German 

175 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

consuls were pajang the passage of thousands of 
Germans who wished to leave Italy for service in 
the army. The train on which I traveled was 
full of these volunteers, who later disembarked 
at Kufstein, on the Austro-German border, to 
report to the militaiy authorities there. 

At Munich we pased some wounded who were 
being taken from the front — the first real glimpse 
of the war that I had had. There was little evi- 
dence of any war-feeling in the Bavarian capital; 
restaurants were crowded, and everyone was 
light-hearted and confident of victory. I saw 
few signs of any hatred there, or elsewhere 
during my stay in Germany. All that there was 
was directed against England; France was uni- 
versally respected, and I heard only expressions 
of regret that she was in the war. 

On the train from Munich to Berlin I had the 
first good meal I had eaten in several weeks. It 
was good to sit down to something besides miles 
of spaghetti and indigestible anchovies. And 
the price was only two marks — for that was 
long before the days of the Food Controller and 
$45 ham. 

Berlin was filled with Austrian officers, some of 
them belonging to motor batteries — the famous 
'32's — which had been built before the war in the 

176 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Krupp factories, not for Germany — for that 
would have occasioned additional armaments on 
the part of France — but by Austria, who could 
increase her strength without suspicion. The 
city, always martial in appearance, had changed 
less than one would have expected. There, too, 
the restaurants were filled; in particular the 
Piccadilly, which had been rechristened the 
Fatherland, and was enjoying an exceptional 
popularity in consequence. One was wise to go 
early if he wished to secure a table there; and 
that fortunate person could see the dining-room 
filled with happy crowds, eating and drinking, 
and applauding vociferously when Die Wacht 
am Rhein or some other patriotic air was played. 
I had returned to Germany for two purposes ; 
to fight and to bring full details of conditions in 
Mexico and the United States to the War Office. 
One of my first official visits was paid to the 
Foreign Office, where I found every one busy 
with routine matters and very little concerned 
about the success or failure of the German 
propaganda in Italy — an attitude in marked 
contrast to that of the General Staff. There the 
first question asked me related to conditions in 
Italy. This indifference of the Foreign Office 
would seem, in the light of after events, to in- 

177 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

dicate a false security on the Ministry's part; 
but in reality the facts are otherwise. Germany 
had never expected Italy to enter the war on the 
side of the Central Powers ; she did hope that her 
former ally would remain neutral, and at that 
time was doing her utmost to keep her so, both 
by propaganda and by assuring her of a supply 
of coal and other commodities, for which Italy 
had formerly depended upon England, and which 
Germany now hoped to secure for her from 
America. But even at the time of my visit the 
indications of Italy's future course were fairly 
clear— and the Foreign Office was accepting its 
failure with as good grace as could be mustered 
to the occasion. 

But if the Foreign Office was indifferent to 
the attitude of Italy, it was intensely interested 
in that of Turkey, which had not yet entered the 
war. It seemed to me as if Mannesmann and Com- 
pany, a house whose interests in the Orient are 
probably more extensive than those of any other 
German company, seemed almost to have taken 
possession of the Colonial Office, so many of its 
employees were in evidence there : and I had an 
extended conference with Bergswerkdirektor 
Steinmann, who had formerly been in charge of 
the Asia Minor interests of this company. 

178 




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My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Mexico, of course, was the principal topic of our 
conversation, but many times he spoke of Turkey 
and of the small doubt that existed as to her 
future course of action. 

Next door to the Foreign Office, every corner 
of which was a-hum with busy clerks and officials, 
stood the house to which I had been taken from 
Gross Lichterfelde so many years before — 
"Samuel Mayer's Bude." It was very quiet and 
empty to outward appearance; and yet from 
within that silent, deserted house, I think it safe 
to say, the destiny of Europe was being directed. 
It was there that the Kaiser spent his days, when 
he was in Berlin. And it was there that the 
Imperial Chancellor had his office and deter- 
mined more than any man except the Kaiser, the 
policies of the Empire. 

One entered the house, going directly into a 
large room that was occupied no longer by the 
round-faced man of my cadet days, but by As- 
sessor Horstman, the head of the Intelligence 
Department of the Foreign Office. Upstairs 
was the private office of the Emperor, and, to the 
rear of that, the Nachrichten Bureau — a news- 
paper propaganda and intelligence office, 
directed by the Kaiser and under the charge of 
Legation- Secretary Weber. 

179 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

I visited the Turkish Legation, at the sugges- 
tion of Herr Steinmann, and discussed at length 
and very seriously with the Ambassador the at- 
titude of Italy and its effect upon Turkey's pos- 
sible entry into the war. He assured me that the 
only thing necessary to make Turkey take part 
in the conflict was a guarantee that Germany 
was capable of handling the Italian situation, 
and that whatever Italy might do would not 
affect Turkish interests. 

But it was with the General Staff that my chief 
business was. At the outbreak of hostilities this 
— the "War Office" so-called — had become two 
organizations. One, devoted to the actual super- 
vision of the forces in the field, had its head- 
quarters in Charleville, France, far behind the 
battle front; the other branch remained in the 
dingy old building on the Koenig's Platz, in 
which it had always been quartered. It is here 
that the army department of "Intelligence," 
officially known as Abteilung III B., is located, 
and it was to this department that I had been 
assigned. 

Von Papen had, of course, communicated to 
Berlin an account of our various activities and 
there was little that I could add to the informa- 
tion the department possessed about conditions 

180 





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Captain Tauscher 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

in the United Stales. Mexico seemed rather the 
chief [joint of interest, and Major Kohnemann, 
to whom I spoke, asked innumerable questions 

about the attitude of ViJla towards both the 
United States and Germany; what J thought of 
his chances of ultimate success, and whether J 
believed that he, if he succeeded, would be more 
friendly to Germany than Carranza was at the 
time. After an hour of such discussion, which 
more closely resembled a cross-examination, he 
suddenly rose. 

"Your information is of great interest, Captain 
von der Goltz," he said. "J shall ask you to 
return here at five o'eloek this evening. Wear 
your heaviest underclothing. You are going to 
see the Emperor." 

1 started. Prussian officers do not joke, as a 
rule, but for the life of me, I could not see any 
sane connection between his last two remarks. 
The major must have noticed my perplexity, for 
he smiled as he continued. 

"You are- going to travel by Zeppelin," he 
explained. "It will be very cold." 

That night I drove by motor to a point on 
the outskirts of the city, where a Zeppelin was 
moored. It was one of those which had formerly 
been fitted up for passenger service, and was now 

181 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

used when quick transportation of a small num- 
ber of men was necessary. There were several 
officers of the General Staff whose immediate 
presence at Coblenz, where the Emperor had 
stationed himself, was needed; and since speed 
was essential we were to travel this way. 

The miles that lay between Berlin and Cob- 
lenz seemed but so many rods to me, as I sat in 
the salon of the great airship, resting and talk- 
ing to my fellow passengers. One would have 
thought that we had been traveling but a few 
moments when suddenly there loomed below us 
in the moonlight, the twin fortresses of Ehren- 
breitstein and Coblenz, each built upon a high 
plateau. Between them, in the valley, the lights 
of the city shone dimly ; in the center of the town 
was the Schloss, where the Emperor awaited us. 

But I did not see the Emperor that night. 
Instead, I was shown to a room in the castle — a 
room lighted by candle — and there my attendant 
bade me good-night. 

At half-past three I was awakened by a knock 
at the door. "Please dress," said a voice. "His 
Majesty wishes to see you at four o'clock." 

It was still dark when at four o'clock I entered 
that room on the ground floor of the castle where 
the Emperor of Emperors worked and ate and 

182 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

slept. In the dim light I saw him, bent over a 
table on which was piled correspondence of all 
kinds. He did not seem to have heard me enter 
the room, and as he continued to work, signing 
paper after paper with great rapidity, I looked 
down and noticed that, in my haste to appear 
before him on time, I had dressed completely save 
for one thing. I was in my stocking feet. 

I coughed to announce my presence. He 
looked up then, and I saw that he wore a Litewka, 
that undress military jacket which is used by 
soldiers for stable duty, and which German of- 
ficers wear sometimes in their homes. But the 
face that met mine, startled me almost out of my 
composure; for it was more like the countenance 
of Pancho Villa than that of Wilhelm Hohen- 
zollern. That face, as a rule so majestic in its 
expression, was drawn and lined; his hair was 
disarranged and showed numerous bald patches 
which it ordinarily covered. And his moustaches 
— for so many years the target of friend and foe 
and which were always pointed so arrogantly 
upward — drooped down and gave him a dis- 
spirited look that I had never seen him wear 
before. 

In a word, it was an extremely nervous and 
not a stolid, Teutonic person who sat before me 

183 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

in that room. And it was not an assertive, but 
merely a very tired human being, who finally 
addressed me. 

"I am sorry to have been obliged to call you at 
this hour," he said, "but I am very busy and it is 
important that I should see you." 

And then instead of ordering me to report to 
him, instead of commanding me to tell him those 
things which I had been sent to tell him, this 
autocrat, this so-called man of iron, spoke to me 
as one man to another, almost as a friend speaks 
to a friend. 

I do not remember all that we spoke of in that 
half hour — the three years that have passed have 
brought me too much of experience for me to 
recall clearly more than the general tenor of our 
conversation. It is his manner that I remember 
most vividly, and the general impression of the 
scene. For as I stood before him then, it sud- 
denly seemed to me that he spoke and looked as 
a man will who is confronted by a problem that 
for the moment has staggered him — not because 
of its immensity but because he sees now that he 
lias always misunderstood it. 

Here, I thought, is a man, accustomed to 
facing all issues with grand words and a show of 
arrogance; and now at a time when oratory is of 

184 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

no avail, he finds himself still indomitable, per- 
haps, but a trifle lost, a trifle baffled, when he 
contemplates the work before him. For Wilhelm 
II had labored for years to prevent, or if that 
were impossible, to come victoriously through, 
the crisis which he knew must some day develop, 
and which he himself had at last precipitated. 
He had striven constantly to entrench Germany 
in a position that would command the world; 
and had sought to concentrate, so far as may be, 
the trouble spots of the world into one or two, to 
the end that Germany, when the time came, might 
extinguish them at a blow. But the time had 
come, and he knew that despite his efforts, there 
were not two but many issues that must be faced, 
and each one separately. He had striven with a 
sort of perverted altruism, to prepare the world 
for those things which he believed to be right and 
which, therefore, must prevail. And now after 
long years of preparation, of diplomatic intrigue 
with its record of nations bribed, threatened or 
cajoled into submision or alliance, he was faced 
with a condition which gave the lie to his expec- 
tations and he knew that "failure" must be 
written across the years. Russia, Japan, were 
for the moment lost ; Italy was making ready to 
cast itself loose from that alliance which had been 

185 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

so insecurely founded upon distrust. And in 
America — who could tell? And yet, for all that 
I read weariness and bewilderment in his every 
tone, I could find in him no trace of hesitation or 
uncertainty. Instead, I knew that running 
through every fibre of the man there was an un- 
questioning assurance of victory — a victory that 
must come! 

While I stood there imagining these things, he 
spoke of our aims in Europe and in America and 
of the things that must be done to bring them to 
success. He bade me tell him the various details 
of our affairs in Mexico and the United States; 
and he, like Kohnemann, was chiefly interested in 
Mexico. It was in fact, almost suspicious, his 
interest was so great ; and I could explain it only 
in one way — that he viewed Mexico as the ulti- 
mate battlefield of Japan and the United States 
in the next great struggle — the struggle for the 
mastery of the Pacific. For just as Belgium has 
been the battlefield of Europe, so must Mexico 
be the battleground of America in that war 
which the future seems to be preparing. 

I remember wondering, as he spoke of what 
might come to pass, at the tremendous familiarity 
he displayed with the points of view of th<* 
peoples and governments of both Americas. I 

186 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

had thought myself well acquainted with con- 
ditions in both continents; but here was a man 
separated by thousands of miles from the peoples 
of whom he talked, whose knowledge was, never- 
theless, more correct, as I saw it, than that of 
anyone — Dernburg not excepted — whom I had 
met. 

It was then, I think, that he told me what 
Germany wished of me, outlining briefly those 
things which he thought I could do best. 

"You can serve us," he said, "in Turkey or in 
America. In the one you will have an oppor- 
tunity to fight as thousands of your countrymen 
are fighting. In the other, you will have chosen 
a task that is not so pleasant perhaps, and not 
less dangerous, but which will always be re- 
garded honorably by your Emperor, because it 
is work that must be done. Which do you 
choose ?" 

I hesitated a moment. 

"It shall be as your Majesty wishes," I said 
finally. 

He looked at me closely before he spoke again. 
"It is America, then." 

And then, as I bowed in acquiescence, he 
spoke once more — for the last time so far as my 
ears are concerned. 

187 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

"I must be ready by 7; my train leaves at 7.10. 
I may never see you again, but I shall always 
know that you have done your duty. Good-bye." 

And so I left him — this man who is a menace 
to his people, not because he is vicious or from 
any criminal intent; not, I believe, because his 
personal ambitions are such that his country 
must bleed to satisfy them; but merely because 
his mind is the outcome of a system and an edu- 
cation so divorced from fact that he could not 
see the evil of his own position if it were explained 
to him. 

For in spite of his remarkable grasp of the 
facts of Empire, the deeper human realities have 
passed him by. For years he has had a private 
clipping bureau for his own information; but he 
does not know that he has never seen any but the 
clippings that the Junkers — those who stood to 
gain by the success of his present course — have 
wished him to see. He does not know that he 
lias been shut out from many chapters of the 
world's real history; or that this insidious censor- 
ship has kept from him those things, which, I am 
sure, had he known in the daj r s when his intellect 
was susceptible to the influence of fact, would 
have made him a man instead of an Emperor. 

Here was a man who honestly believed that he 
188 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

was doing what was best for his people, but so 
hopelessly warped by his training and so closely 
surrounded by satellites that even had the truth 
borne wings, it could not have reached him. 

To me it seems that the menace of the Hohen- 
zollerns lies in this: not that they are worse than 
other men, not that they mean ill to the world, 
but that time and experience have left them 
unaroused by what others know as progress. 
They stand in the pathway of the world to-day, 
believing themselves right and regarding them- 
selves as victims of an oppressive rivalry. They 
do not know that their viewpoint is as tragically 
perverted as that of the fox who, feeling that he 
must lire, steals the farmer's hens. But, like the 
farmer, the world knows only that it is injured; 
and just as the farmer realizes that he must rid 
himself of the fox, so the world knows, to-day, 
and says that the Hohenzollerns must go! 



CHAPTER IX. 

In England — and how I reached there, 

I am arrested and imprisoned for fifteen months. 

What von Pa pen's baggage contained. 

I make a sworn statement. 

T% ACK in Berlin, I sought out Major Kohne- 
*-* maim, and together we spent many days in 
planning my future course of action. It was 
a war council in effect, for the object toward 
which we aimed was nothing less than the crip- 
pling of the United States by a campaign of 
terrorism and conspiracy. It was not pleasant 
work that I was to do, but I knew, as every in- 
formed German did, that it was necessary. 
Therefore I accepted it. 

What would you have? Germany was in the 
Mar to conquer or be conquered. America, the 
source of supply for the Allies, stood in the way. 
Knowing these things, we set about the task of 
preventing America from aiding our enemies, 
by using whatever means we could. We did not 
feel either compunction or hostility. It was war 

190 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

— diplomatic rather than military, but war none 
the less. 

I do not intend to go into the details of our 
plans at the present moment. Those will have 
their place in a later chapter. Enough to say that 
after a brief visit to both the eastern and western 
fronts I left Germany for England — en route to 
America with a program that in ruthlessness or 
efficiency left nothing to be desired. 

But before going to England it was necessary 
that I take every possible precaution against ex- 
posure there. My passport might be sufficient 
identification, but I knew that since the arrest of 
Carl Lody and other German spies in England, 
the British authorities were examining passports 
with a great deal more care than they had 
formerly exercised. Accordingly, one morning, 
Mr. Bridgman Taylor presented himself at the 
American Embass}^ for financial aid with which 
to leave Germany. There was good reason for 
this. To ask a consulate or embassy to vise a 
passport when that is not necessary, may easily 
seem suspicious. But the applicant for aid, re- 
ceives not only additional identification in the 
form of a record of his movements, but also 
secures an advantage in that his passport bears 
an indorsement of his appeal for assistance, in 

191 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

my case signed with the name of the Ambassador. 
At The Hague I again applied for help from the 
United States Relief Commission. I amused 
myself on this occasion by making two drafts; 
one for fifteen dollars on Mr. John F. Ryan 
of Buffalo, N. Y., and one for thirty dollars on 
"Mr. Papen" of New York City. 

I was fairly secure, then, I thought. If sus- 
picion did fall upon me, it would be simple to 
prove that I had submitted my passport to a 
number of American officials, and had conse- 
quently satisfied them of my good faith as well 
as that the passport had not been issued to some 
one other than myself, as in the case of Lody. 

As a final step I took care to divide my per- 
sonal papers into two groups: those which were 
perfectly harmless, such as my Mexican com- 
mission and leave of absence, and those which 
would tend to establish my identity as a German 
agent. These I deposited in two separate safe- 
deposit vaults in Rotterdam, taking care to re- 
member in which each group was placed — and 
that done, with a feeling of personal security, 
and even a certain amount of zest for the ad- 
venture, I boarded a channel steamer for Eng- 
land. 

I was absolutely safe, I felt. In my con- 
192 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

iidence, I went about very freely, ignoring the 
fact that England was at the moment in the 
throes of a spy-scare, and even so well-recom- 
mended a German- American as Mr. Bridgman 
Taylor, was not likely to escape scrutiny. 

And yet, I believe that I should not have been 
caught at all, if I had not stopped one day in 
front of the Horse Guards and joined the crowd 
that was watching guard mount. Why I did it, 
it is impossible for me to say. There was no 
military advantage to be gained; that is certain. 
And I had seen guard mount often enough to 
find no element of novelty in it. Whim, I sup- 
pose, drew me there; and as luck would have it, 
it drew into a particularly congested portion of 
the crowd. And then chance played another 
card, by causing a small boy to step on my foot. 
I lost my temper and abused the lad roundly for 
his carelessness — so roundly in fact that a man 
standing in front of me turned around and looked 
into my face. 

I recognized him at once as an agent of the 
Russian Government, whom I had once been 
instrumental in exposing as a spy in Ger- 
many. I saw him look at me closely for a mo- 
ment and I could tell by his expression, although 
he said no word, that he had recognized me also. 

193 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Thrusting a penny into the boy's hand, I made 
haste to get out of the crowd as quickly as I 
could. 

Here was a pleasant situation, I thought, as 
I made my way very quietly to my hotel. I 
could not doubt that the Russian would report 
me — but what then? His word against mine 
would not convict me of anything, but it might 
lead to au inconvenient period of detention. I 
sat down to consider the situation. 

After all, I decided, the situation was serious 
but not absolutely hopeless. Unquestionably I 
should be reported to the police; unquestionably 
a careful investigation would result in the dis- 
covery that there was no Bridgman II. Taylor 
at the address in El Paso which I had given to 
the Relief Commission at the Hague. For the 
rest, my accent would prove only that I was of 
German blood ; not that I was a German subject. 

So far, so bad. But what then? I had, in the 
safe deposit vaults at Rotterdam, papers proving 
that I was a Mexican officer on leave. It would 
be a simple matter to send for these papers, to 
admit that I was Horst von der Goltz, and to 
state that I was in England en route from a visit 
to my family in Germany and now bound for 
Mexico to resume my services. There remained 

194. 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

but one matter to explain: why I was using an 
American passport bearing a name that was not 
mine. 

That should not he a difficult task. Huerta 
had been overthrown barely a week before my 
leave of absence was issued. Carranza's govern- 
ment had not yet been recognized, and already 
my general, Villa, had quarreled with him, so that 
it was impossible for me to procure a passport 
from the Mexican Government. In my dilemma, 
I had taken advantage of the offer of an Ameri- 
can exporter, who had been kind enough to lend 
me his passport, which he had secured and found 
he did not need at the time. As for my name, it 
was not a particularly good one under whicb to 
travel in England, so I had naturally been 
obliged to use the one on my passport. 

It was a good story and had somewhat the ap- 
pearance of truth. The question was, would it 
be believed? Even if it were, it had its disad- 
vantages; for I should certainly be arrested as 
an enemy alien, and after a delay fatal to all my 
plans, I should probably be deported. I decided 
to try a bolder scheme. 

In Parliamentary White Paper, Miscellaneous 
No. 13, (1910), you will find a statement which 
explains my next step. "Horst von der Goltz," 

105 



My Adventures as a German Secret dgeni 

it says, "arrived in England Prom Holland on 
the fourth of November, 1914. He offered in- 
formation upon projected air raids, the source 
whence the Emden derived her information as to 
British shipping, and hew the Leipsic was ob- 
taining her coal supply. //<■ offered to go back 
to Germany to obtain information and all he 

ashed for in the first instance was his traveling 

<\vpnisc\w" 

What is the meaning o( these amazing 
statements? Simply this. 1 realized thai even it' 
the story I had concocted were believed it would 
mean a considerable delay and ultimate deporta- 
tion, And as I had no mind to submit to either 
of these things it' 1 could avoid them, I decided 
to forestall my Russian friend by taking the 
only possible stop one commendable for its 
audacity it' for nothing else. Accordingly I 
walked straight to Downing St root and into the 
Foreign Office. 1 asked to see Mr. Campbell oi' 
the Secret Intelligence Department. This was 
walking into the jaws of the lion with a ven- 
geance. 

1 told Mr, Campbell that T wished to enter the 
British Secret Service; that 1 was in a position 
to secure much valuable information, 

"Upon what subject?*' asked Mr, Campbell. 
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S3 I 







My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Zeppelin raids, I told him. I choose that sub- 
ject first, because it was the least harmful I could 
think of in case my "traitorous" offer ever 
reached the ears of Berlin. No one knew better 
than I how imposible it was to obtain information 
about Zeppelins. I reasoned that the officers in 
command of Abteilung III B in the General 
Staff would know that I was bluffing when I 
offered to get information upon that subject for 
the English. They would know that I was not 
in a position to have or to obtain any such 
knowledge, for in Germany no topic is so closely 
guarded as that. Also, I reasoned that it was a 
topic in which the English were vastly interested. 
They were. 

Mr. Campbell was hesitating, so I added two 
other equally absurd subjects, the movements of 
the Emden and the Leipsic, about which I knew 
— and the service chiefs knew that I knew — ab- 
solutely nothing. 

Mr. Campbell was plainly puzzled. My inten- 
tions seemed to be good. At any rate, I had 
come to him quite openly, and any ulterior 
motives I might have had were not apparent. 
Then, too, I had offered him the key of my safe 
deposit box, teling him what it contained. He 
considered a moment. 

197 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

"We shall have to investigate your story," he 
said finally. "We shall send to Holland for the 
papers you say are contained in the vault there; 
and you will be questioned further. In the 
meantime I shall have to place you under 
arrest." 

I had expected nothing better than this, and 
went to my jail with a feeling that was relief 
rather than anything else. My papers would 
establish my identity and then, if all went well, 
I should go back to Germany and make my way 
to America by another route. 

But all did not go well. Somehow, in spite of 
my commission and leave of absence — perhaps 
because my offer seemed too good to be true — 
the British authorities decided that it would be 
better to lose the information I had offered them 
and keep me in England. Whatever their sus- 
picions, the only charge they could bring against 
me and prove was that I was an alien enemy who 
had failed to register. They had no proof what- 
ever of any connection between me and the Ger- 
man Government. So on the 13th of November, 
1914, they brought me into a London police 
court to answer the charge of failing to register. 
I was delighted to do so. It was far more com- 
fortable than facing a court martial on trial for 



s My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

my life as a spy, as the English newspapers had 
seemed to expect. Accordingly on the 26th of 
November I was duly sentenced to six months at 
hard labor in Pentonville Prison, with a recom- 
mendation for deportation at the expiration of 
my sentence. I served five months at Penton- 
ville — where Roger Casement was hanged — and 
then my good behavior let me out. Home Secre- 
tary MacKenna signed the order for my depor- 
tation. I was free. I was to slip from under the 
paw of the lion. 

And then something happened — to this day I 
don't know what. Instead of being deported I 
was thrust into Brixton Prison, where Kuepferer 
hanged himself, strangely enough, just after his 
troubles seemed over. Kuepferer had driven a 
bargain with the English. He was to give them 
information in return for his life and freedom; 
and then, when he had everything arranged, he 
committed suicide. In Brixton I was not sen- 
tenced on any charge, I was simply held in 
solitary confinement, with occasional diversions 
in the form of a "third degree." After my first 
insincere offer to give the English information I 
kept my mouth shut and made no overtures to 
them, although I confess that the temptation to 
tell all I knew was often very great. The Eng- 

199 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

lish got nothing- out of me and in September, 
1915, I was shifted to another prison. They 
took me out of Brixton and placed me into Read- 
ing — the locale of Oscar Wilde's ballad. Con- 
ditions were less disagreeable there. I was 
allowed to have newspapers and magazines, and 
to talk and exereise with my fellow prisoners. 

You may be sure that all this time the English 
made attempts to solve my personal identity as 
well as to learn the reason for my being in Eng- 
land. They could not shake my story. Time 
after time I told them: "I am Horst von der 
Goltz, an officer of the Mexican army on leave. 
I used the United States passport made out to 
Bridgman Taylor from necessity — to avoid the 
suspicion that would be attached to me because 
of my German descent. 

"Gentlemen, that is all I can tell you." 

Over and over again I repeated that meagre 
statement to the men who questioned me. I 
would not tell them the truth, and I knew that 
no lie would help me. And then came an event 
which changed my viewpoint and made me tell — 
if not the whole story — at least a considerable 
part of it. 

I had, as I have said, managed to secure news- 
papers in my new quarters. It is difficult to say 

200 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

how eagerly I read them after so many months of 
complete ignorance, or with what anxiety I 
studied such war news as came into my hands- 
It was America in which I was chiefly interested, 
for I knew that after my capture, some other 
man must have been sent to do the work which I 
had planned to do. I know now that it was von 
Rintelen who was selected — that infinitely re- 
sourceful intriguer who planted his spies through- 
out the United States, and for a time seemed 
well on the way to succeeding in the most gigan- 
tic conspiracy against a peaceful nation that had 
ever been undertaken. But at the time I could 
tell nothing of this, although I watched unceas- 
ingly for reports of strikes, explosions and Ger- 
man uprisings which would tell me that that 
work which I had been commanded to do and 
from which I was only too glad to be spared, was 
being prosecuted. 

So several months passed — months in which I 
had time for meditation and in which I began 
to see more clearly some things which had been 
hinted at in Berlin — and of which I shall tell 
more later on. And then one day I read a dis- 
patch that caused me to sit very silently for a 
moment in my cell, and to wonder — and fear a 
little. 

201 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Yon Papen had boon recalled. 

I read the story of how he and Captain Boy- 
Ed had over-reached and finally betrayed them- 
selves; of the passport frauds thai they had con- 
ducted; oi' the conspiracies and sedition that they 
had sought to stir up. I learned that they had 
been sent home under a safe-eondnet which did 
not cover any documents they might carry. It 
was this last fact which caused me uneasiness. 
Had von Papen. always si> confident oi' his suc- 
cess, attempted to smuggle through some report 
oi' his two years oi' plotting? It seemed im- 
probable, and yet, knowing his tendency to take 
chances, I was troubled by the possibility. For 
such a report might contain a record of my 
connection with him — and I was not protected 
by a safe-conduct! 

My fears were well-founded, as yon know. 
Von Papen carried with him no particular re- 
ports, but a number of personal papers which 
were seized when his ship stopped at Falmouth. 

In my prison 1 read oi' the seizure and was 
doubly alarmed; increasingly so when the news- 
papers began publishing reports that they im- 
plicated literally hundreds of Irish- and German- 
Americans whoso services von Papen had used in 
his plots. Then as the days passed, and my, 

202 



My Adventures an a German Secret A {rent 

name was riot mentioned in the disclosures, I 
became relieved. 

"After all," J thought, "he knows that I am 
here in prison and that J have kept silent. lie 
will have been careful. These others- he has had 
some reason for his incautiousness with them. 
But, he will not betray me, just as he has be- 
trayed none of his German associates." 

Then, on the night of January 30th, 1910, the 
governor of Reading Prison informed me that 
I was to go to London the next day. 

"Where to?" J asked. 

"To Scotland Yard," he said briefly. 

"What for?" 

"I do not know." 

My heart sank, for I realized at once that 
something had ocurred which, was of vital import 
to me. I have faced firing squads in Mexico. I 
have stood against a wall, waiting for the signal 
that should bid the soldiers fire. And I have 
taken other dangerous chances, without, I be- 
lieve, more fear than another man would have 
known. But never have I felt more reluctant 
than that night when T stood outside of Scotland 
Yard, waiting — for what? 

T was brought in to the office of the Assistant 
Commissioner and found myself in the presence 

203 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

of four men, who regarded- me gravely and in 
silence. I had never seen them before, but later I 
learned their names: Capt. William Hall of the 
Admiralty Intelligence Department; Mr. Nathan, 
the Oriental expert of the Foreign Office; Cap- 
tain Carter of the War Office, and Mr. Basil 
Thompson, Assistant Commissioner of the Police 
of London. 

There was something tomb-like about the at- 
mosphere of the room, I thought, as I faced these 
men — and then I changed my opinion, for I saw 
lying open on the table around which they were 
seated — a box of cigarettes. I reached forward 
to take one, forgetting all politeness (for I had 
not smoked in six weeks) when my eye caught 
sight of a little pink slip of paper which one of 
them held in his hand — a slip which, I knew at 
once, was the cause of my presence there. 

It was Captain Hall who held the paper 
toward me. It read: 

Washington, D. C. 
September 1, 1914. 
The Riggs National Bank, 

Pay to the order of Mr. Bridgman Taylor 
two himdred dollars. 

F. VON Papen. 
204 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

When I had read it he turned over the cheek 
so that I could see the endorsement. 

They were all watching me. The room was 
very still. I could hear myself breathe. Mr. 
Nathan of the Foreign Office handed me a pen 
and paper. 

"Sign this name, please — Mr. Bridgman 
Taylor." 

I knew it would be folly to attempt to disguise 
my handwriting. I wrote out my name. It 
corresponded exactly with the endorsement on 
the back of the check. 

"Do you know that check?" he asked. 

"Yes," I admitted, racking my wits for a pos- 
sible explanation of the affair. 

"Why was it issued?" 

I had an inspiration. 

"Von Papen gave it to me to go to Europe and 
join the army — but you see I didn't " 

"Ah! Von Papen gave it to you." 

I was doing quick thinking. My first fright 
was over, but I realized that that little check 
might easily be my death warrant. I knew that 
von Papen had many reports and instructions 
bearing my name. I was afraid to admit to 
myself that after all these months of security, I 
had at last been discovered. Von Papen's check 

205 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

proved that I had received money from a repre- 
sentative of the German Government. There 
might be other papers which would prove every 
thing needed to sentence me to execution. I was 
groping around for an idea — and then in a flash 
I realized the truth. It angered and embittered 
me. 

There passed across my memory the year and 
more of solitary confinement, during which I had 
held my tongue. 

I swung around on the Englishmen. 

"Are you the executioners of the German 
Government?" I asked. "Are you so fond of 
von Papen that you want to do him a favor? If 
you shoot me you will be obliging him." 

The four grave faces looked at me. "We are 
going to prosecute you on this evidence," was the 
only answer. 

"You English pride yourselves," I said, "on 
not being taken in. Von Papen is a very clevefl 
man. Are you going to let him use you for Ws 
own purposes? Do you think he was foolish 
enough not to realize that those papers would be 
seized? Do you think" — this part of it was a 
random shot, and lucky — "do you think it is an 
accident that the only papers he carried, referring 
to a live, unsentenced man in England refer 

200 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

to me? Just think! Von Papen has been re- 
called. The United States can investigate his 
actions now without embarrassment. And he, 
knowing me to be one of the connecting links in 
the chain of his activities, and knowing that I am 
a prisoner liable to extradition, would ask nothing 
better than to be permanently rid of me. And 
in the papers he carried he very obligingly fur- 
nished you with incriminating evidence against 
me. You can choose for yourselves. Do him this 
favor if you want to. But I think I'm worth 
more to you alive than dead. Especially now 
that I see how very willing my own government 
is to have me dead." 

The four men exchanged glances. I had made 
the appeal as a forlorn hope. Would they accept 
it and the promise it implied? I could not tell 
from their next words. 

"We shall discuss that further, 55 said Captain 
Carter. "You will return to Reading." 

The next few days were full of anxiety for me. 
I could not tell how my appeal had been re- 
garded, but I knew that it would be only by good 
fortune that I should escape at least a trial for 
espionage — for that is what my presence in Eng- 
land would mean. Finally I received a tentative 
assurance of immunity if I should tell what I 

207 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

knew of the workings of German secret agencies. 

In spite of any hesitancy I might formerly 
have felt at such a course, I decided to make a 
confession. Von Papen's betrayal of me — for 
that he had intentionally betrayed me, I was, and 
am, convinced — was too wanton to arouse in me 
any feeling except a desire for my freedom, 
which for fifteen months I had been robbed of, 
merely through the silence which my own sense 
of honor imposed upon me. But I must be care- 
ful. I had no desire to injure anyone whom von 
Papen had not implicated. And I did not wish 
to betray any secret which I could safely with- 
hold. 

I speculated upon what other documents von 
Papen might have carried. So far as I knew 
the only one involving me was the check ; but of 
that I could not be sure, nor did it seem likely. 
It was more probable that there were other 
papers which would be used to test the sincerity 
of my story. My aim was to tell only such 
things as were already known, or were quite 
harmless. But how to do that? I needed some 
inkling as to what I might tell and on what I 
must be silent. 

That knowledge was difficult to obtain, but I 
finally secured it through a rather adroit ques- 

208 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

tioning of one of the men who interrogated me 
at the time. He had shown me much courtesy 
and no little sympathy; and after some pains I 
managed to worm out of him a very indefinite 
but useful idea of what matters the von Papen 
documents covered. 

What I learned was sufficient to enable me to 
exclude from my story any facts implicating 
men who might be harmed by my disclosures. I 
told of the Welland Canal plot so far as my part 
in it was concerned, and I told of von Papen's 
share in that and other activities. And I took 
care to incorporate in my confession tne promise 
of immunity that had been made me tentatively. 

"I have made these statements," I wrote, "on 
the distinct understanding that the statements I 
have made, or should make in the future, will not 
be used against me; that I am not to be prose- 
cuted for participation in any enterprise directed 
against the United Kingdom or her Allies I 
engaged in at the direction of Captain von Papen 
or other representatives of the German Govern- 
ment; and that the promise made to me by Capt. 
William Hall, Chief of the Intelligence Depart- 
ment of the Admiralty, in the presence of Mr. 
Basil Thompson, former Governor of Tonga, 
and Assistant Commissioner of Police, and in the 

209 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

presence of Superintendent Quinn, polit"?al 
branch of Scotland Yard, that I am not to be 
extradited or sent to any country where I am 
liable to punishment for political offences, is 
made on behalf of His Majesty's Government." 

It was on February 2nd that I turned in my 
confession and swore to the truth of it. Affairs 
went better with me after that. I was sent to 
Lewes Prison, and there I was content for the 
remainder of my stay in England. And al- 
though I was still a prisoner I felt more free 
than I had felt in many years. I was out of it 
all — free of the necessity to be always watchful, 
always secret. And above all, I had cut myself 
loose from the intriguing that I had once en- 
joyed, but which in the last two years I had 
grown to hate more than I hated anything else 
on earth. 

And there my own adventures end — so far as 
this book is concerned. I shall not do more than 
touch upon my return to the United States on 
so far different an errand than I had once 
planned. My testimony in the Grand Jury pro- 
ceedings against Captain Tauscher, von Igel and 
other of my onetime fellow conspirators, is a 
matter of too recent record to deserve more than 
passing mention. Tauscher, you will remember, 

210 



R. MEES & ZOONEN 

ROTTERDAM. 



SAFE-DEPOSIT. 



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TOT EN MET.J^^f****. Sf. '' *• _z46.-*-j 

SAFE-LGKET 



A No. 



BNo. 



C No. 



MET BIJBEHOORENDEN SlEUTEU No. l^ i IN HET KaNTOOR 
GEBOUW AAN DE ZUIDBLAAK TE ROTTERDAM, TEGEN EEN 
HUURPRIJS VAN fWffe^jr^'. OP DE AAN OMMEZIJDE VERMELDE 
VOORWAARDEN / 

De Firma R Mees & Zoonen /erklaart harerzijds. 

DAT DE HUURPRUS IS \/OLDAAN. ^ 

Rotterdam, .J ^"Vv *w-rz^a-? ~vi /'/- 

DE FIRMA DE HUUR;"' 

i.p.R. MEES& ZOONEN 





IN, DUPLO GETEEKEND- 



In the safe-deposit vault, the receipt for which is reproduced 
herewith, Capt. von der Goltz deposited his Mexican Com- 
mission and other papers which would prove his connection 
with the Mexican Constitutionalist army. It will be noted 
that the receipt bears von der Goltz's signature as "B. H. 
Taylor," the name under which he returned to Europe. 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

was acquitted because it was impossible to prove 
that he was aware of the objects for which he 
had supplied explosives. Von Igel, Captain von 
Papen's secretary, was protected by diplomatic 
immunity. And Fritzen and Covani, my former 
lieutenants, had not yet been captured.* 

But though my intriguing was ended, Ger- 
many's was not. It may be interesting to con- 
sider these intrigues, in the light of what I had 
learned during those two years — and what I have 
discovered since. 



*Fritzen, who was captured in Hartwood, Cal., on March 9, 
1917, was arraigned in New York City on March 16, and 
after pleading not guilty, later reversed his plea. He is at 
present serving a term of eighteen months in a Federal 
prison. 



CHAPTER X. 

The German intrigue against the United 
States. Von Papen s Boy-Ed and von Rintelen, 
and the work they did. How the Ger- 
man-Americans were used and how 
they were betrayed. 

IN the long record of German intrigue in the 
* United States one fact stands out predomin- 
antly. If you consider the tremendous ramifica- 
tions of the system that Germany has built, the 
extent of its organization and the efficiency with 
which so gigantic a secret work was carried on, 
you will realize that this system was not the work 
of a short period hut of many years. As a 
matter of fact, Germany had laid the foundation 
of that structure of espionage and conspiracy 
many years before — even before the time when 
the United States first became a Colonial Power 
and thus involved herself in the tangle of world 
politics. 

I am making no rash assertions when I state 
that ten years ago the course which German 

212 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

agents should adopt toward the United States 
in the event of a great European war, had been 
determined with a reasonable amount of exact- 
ness by the General Staff, and that it was this 
plan that was adapted to the conditions of the 
moment, and set into operation at the outbreak 
of the present conflict. No element of hostility 
lay behind this planning. Germany had no 
grievance against you; and whatever potential 
causes of conflict existed between the two nations 
lay far in the future. 

That plan, so complete in detail, so menacing 
in its intent, was but part of a world plan 
that should assure to Germany when the time 
was ripe the submission of all her enemies and 
the peaceful assistance and acquiescence in her 
aims of whatever parts of the world should at 
that time remain at peace. Germany looked far 
ahead on that day when she first knew that war 
must come. She realized, if no other nation did, 
that however strong in themselves the combatants 
were, the neutrals who should command the 
world's supplies, would really determine the 
victory. 

Knowing this, Germany — which does not play 
the game of diplomacy with gloves on — laid her 
plans accordingly. 

213 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

The United States offered a peculiarly fruitful 
field for her endeavors. By tradition and geog- 
raphy divorced from European rivalries, it was, 
nevertheless, from both an industrial and agri- 
cultural standpoint, obviously to become the most 
important of neutral nations. The United 
State alone could feed and equip a continent; 
and it needed no prophet to perceive that which- 
ever country could appropriate to itself her re- 
sources would unquestionably win the war, if a 
speedy military victory were not forthcoming. 

It was Germany's aim, therefore, to prepare 
the way by which she could secure these supplies, 
or, failing in that, to keep them from the enemy, 
England — if England it should be. In a military 
way such a plan had little chance of success. 
England's command of the seas was too complete 
for Germany to consider that she could establish 
a successful blockade against her. It was then, I 
fancy, that Germany bethought herself of a 
greatly potential ally in the millions of citizens 
of German birth or parentage with whom the 
United States was filled. 

One may extract a trifle of cynical amusement 
from what followed. Those millions of German- 
Americans had never been regarded with affec- 
tion in Berlin. The vast majority of them were 

214 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

descendants of men who had left their homes 
for political reasons ; and of those who had been 
born in Germany many had emigrated to escape 
military service, and others had gone to seek a 
better opportunity than their native land pro- 
vided. They had been called renegades who had 
given up their true allegiance for citizenship in 
a foreign country, and BernstorfT himself, ac- 
cording to the evidence of U. S. Senator Phelan, 
had said that he regarded them as traitors and 
cowards. 

But Germany voicing her own spleen in 
private and Germany with an axe to grind, were 
two different beings. And no one who observed 
the honeyed beginnings of the Deutschthum 
movement in America would have believed that 
these men who in public were so assiduously and 
graciously flattered were in private characterized 
as utter traitors to the Fatherland — and worse. 

Certainly no one believed it when, in 1900, 
Prince Henry of Prussia paid his famous visit to 
America. No word of criticism of these "traitors" 
was spoken by him; and when at banquets 
glasses were raised and Milwaukee smiled across 
the table at Berlin, the sentimental onlooker 
might have known a gush of joy at this spectacle 
of amity and reconciliation. And the sentimental 

215 



'My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

onlooker would never have suspected that Prince 
Henry had traveled three thousand miles for any 
other purpose than to attend the launching of the 
Kaiser's yacht Meteor, which was then building 
in an American yard. 

But to the cynical observer, searching the 
records of the years immediately following 
Prince Henry's visit, a few strange facts would 
have become apparent. He would have dis- 
covered that German societies, which had been 
neither very numerous nor popular before, had 
in a comparatively short time acquired a member- 
ship and a prominence that were little short of 
remarkable. He would have noted the increas- 
ing number of German teachers and professors 
who appeared on the faculties of American 
schools and colleges. He would have remarked 
upon the growth in popularity of the German 
newspapers, many of them edited by Germans 
who had never become naturalized. And yet, ob- 
serving these things, he might have agreed with 
the vast majority of Americans, in regarding 
them as entirely harmless and of significance 
merely as a proof of how hard love of one's 
native land dies. 

He would have been mistaken had he so re- 
garded them. The German Government does not 

216 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

spend money for sentimental purposes; and in 
the last ten years that Government has expended 
literally millions of dollars for propaganda in 
the United States. It has consistently en- 
couraged a sentiment for the Fatherland that 
should be so strong that it would hold first place 
in the heart of every German- American. It has 
circulated pamphlets advocating the exclusive use 
of the German language, not merely in the 
homes, but in shops and street cars and all other 
public places. It has lent financial support to 
German organizations in America, and in a 
thousand ways has aimed so to win the hearts of 
the German-Americans that when the time 
should come the United States, by sheer force of 
numbers, would be delivered, bound hand and 
foot, into the hands of the German Government. 
It was this object of undermining the true 
allegiance of the German citizens of the United 
States which transformed an innocent and 
natural tendency into a menace that was the 
more insidious because the veiy people involved 
were, for the most part, entirely ignorant of its 
true nature. Germany seized upon an attach- 
ment that was purely one of sentiment and race 
and sought to make it an instrument of political 
power; and she went about her work with so 

217 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

efficient a secrecy that she very nearly accom- 
plished her purpose. 

By the time the Great War broke out the 
German propaganda in America had assumed 
notable proportions. German newspapers were 
plentiful and had acquired a tremendous influ- 
ence over the minds of German-speaking folk. 
Many of the German societies had been consoli- 
dated into one national organization — the Ger- 
man-American National Alliance, with a mem- 
bership of two millions, and a president, C. J. 
Hexamer of Chicago, whose devotion to the 
Fatherland has been so great that he has since 
been decorated with the Order of the Red Eagle. 
And the German people of the United States 
had, by along campaign of flattery and cajolery, 
coupled with a systematic glorification of Ger- 
man genius and institutions, been won to attach- 
ment to the country of their origin that required 
only a touch to translate it into fanaticism. 

Germany had set the stage and rehearsed the 
chorus. There were needed only the principals 
to make the drama complete. These she pro- 
vided in the persons of four men: Franz von 
Papen, Karl Boy-Ed, Heinrich Albert, and 
later, Franz von Rintelen. 

They were no ordinary men whom Germany 
218 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

had appointed to the leadership of this giant 
underground warfare against a peaceful country. 
Highly bred, possessing a wide and intensive 
knowledge of finance, of military strategy and 
of diplomatic finesse, they were admirably 
equipped to win the admiration and trust of the 
people of this country, at the very moment that 
they were attacking them. All of them were 
men skilled in the art of making friends; and so 
successfully did they employ this art that their 
popularity for a long time contrived to shield 
them from suspicion. Each of these men was 
assigned to the command of some particular 
branch of German secret service. And each 
brought to his task the resources of the scientist, 
the soldier and the statesman, coupled with the 
scruples of the bandit. 

It is impossible in this brief space to tell the 
full story of the activities of these gentlemen and 
of their many, highly trained assistants. Vio- 
lence, as you know, played no small part in their 
plans. Sedition, strikes in munitions plants, at- 
tacks upon ships carrying supplies to the Allies, 
the crippling of transportation facilities, bomb 
outrages — these are a few of the main elements 
in the campaign to render the United States 
useless as a source of supply for Germany's 

219 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

enemies. But ultimately of far more import- 
ance than this was a program of publicity that 
should not only present to the German- Ameri- 
cans the viewpoint of their fatherland (an en- 
tirely legitimate propaganda) but which was 
aimed to consolidate them into a political unit 
which should be used, by peaceful means if pos- 
sible — such as petitions and the like — and if that 
method failed, by absolute armed resistance, to 
force the United States Government to declare 
an embargo upon shipments of munitions and 
foodstuffs to the Allies, and to compel it to 
assume a position, if not of active alliance with 
Germany (a hope that was never seriously en- 
tertained) at least one which should distinctly 
favor the German Government and cause serious 
dissension between America and England. 

There followed a two-fold campaign; on the 
one hand active terrorism against private in- 
dustry insofar as it was of value to the Allies, 
reinforced by the most determined plots against 
Canada; on the other an insincere and lying 
propaganda that presented the United States 
Government as a pretender of a neutrality which 
it did not attempt to practise — as an institution 
controlled by men who were unworthy of the 
support of any but Anglophiles and hypocrites. 

220 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Left to itself the sympathy of German- Ameri- 
cans would have been directed toward Germany ; 
stimulated as it was by an unremitting campaign 
of publicity, this sympathy became a devotion 
almost rabid in its intensity. Race consciousness 
was aroused, and placed upon the defensive by 
the attitude of the larger portion of the American 
press, the German-Americans became defiant 
and aggressive in their apologies for the Father- 
land. Even those whose German origin was so 
remote that they were ignorant of the very 
language of their fathers, subscribed to news- 
papers and periodicals whose sole reason for 
existence was that they presented the truth — as 
Germany saw it. If in that presentation the 
German press adopted a tone that was seditious 
— why, there were those in Berlin who would 
applaud the more heartily. And in ISTew York 
Captain von Papen and his colleagues would 
read and nod their heads approvingly. 

At the end of the first two months of the war, 
and of my active service in America, the cam- 
paign of violence was well under way. Already 
plans had been made for several enterprises 
other than the Welland Canal plot, which I have 
discussed already. Attacks had been planned 
against several vulnerable points in the Canadian 

221 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Pacific Railway, such as the St. Clair Tunnel, 
running under the Detroit River at Point 
Huron, Mich.; agents had been planted in the 
various munitions factories, and spies were 
everywhere seeking possible points of vantage at 
which a blow for Germany could be struck. A 
plan had even then been made to blow up the 
railroad bridge at Vanceboro. 

But already von Papen and his associates, 
including myself, knew that Germany could 
never succeed in crippling Allied commerce in 
the United States and in proceeding effectively 
against Canada until we could count upon the 
implicit co-operation of the German- Americans, 
even though that co-operation involved active 
disloyalty to the country of their adoption. 

There lay the difficulty. That the bulk of the 
German- Americans were loyal to their govern- 
ment, I knew at the time. Now, happity, that is 
a matter that is beyond doubt. Among them 
there were, of course, many whose zeal outran 
their scruples and others whose scruples were for 
sale. But for the most part, although they could 
be cajoled into a partnership that was not always 
prudent, they could not be led beyond this point 
into positive defiance of the United States, how- 
ever mistaken they might believe its policies. 

222 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

The rest of the story I cannot tell at first hand, 
for I was not directly concerned in the events 
that followed. What I know I have pieced 
together from my recollection of conversations 
with von Papen, and from what many people in 
Berlin, who thought I was familiar with the 
affair, told me. Who fathered the idea, I do not 
know. Some one conceived a scheme so treacher- 
ous and contemptible that every other act of this 
war seems white beside it. It was planned so 
to discredit the German- Americans that the 
hostility of their fellow-citizens would force them 
back into the arms of the German Government. 
These millions of American citizens of German 
descent were to be given the appearance of dis- 
loyalty, in order that they might become objects 
of suspicion to their fellows, and through their 
resentment at this attitude the cleavage between 
Germans and non-Germans in this country would 
be increased and perhaps culminate in armed 
conflict. 

On the face of it this looks like the absurd and 
impossible dream of an insane person, rather 
than a diplomatic program. And yet, if it be 
examined more closely, the plan will be seen to 
have a psychological basis that, however far- 
fetched, is essentially sound. Given a people 

223 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

already bewildered by the almost universal con- 
demnation of a country which they have sincerely 
revered; add to that serious difference in sym- 
pathies an attitude of distrust of all German- 
Americans by the other inhabitants of this coun- 
try; and you have sown the seed of a race- 
antagonism that if properly nurtured may easily 
grow into a violent hatred. In a word, Germany 
had decided that if the German- Americans could 
not be coaxed back into the fold they might be 
beaten back. She set about her part of the task 
with an industry that would have commanded 
admiration had it been better employed. 

Glance back over the history of the past three 
years and consider how, almost over night, the 
"hyphen" situation developed. America, shaken 
by a war which had been declared to be impos- 
sible, become suddenly conscious of the presence 
within her borders of a portion of her population 
— a nation in numbers — largely unassimilated, 
retaining its own language, and possessing 
characteristics which suddenly became conspicu- 
ously distasteful. Inevitably, as I say, the 
cleavage in sympathies produced distrust. But 
it was not until stories of plots in which German- 
Americans were implicated became current that 
this distrust developed into an acute suspicion. 

224 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Germanophobia was rampant in those days, and 
to hysterical persons it was unthinkable that any 
German could be exempt from the suspicion of 
treason. 

It was upon this foundation that the German 
agents erected their structure of lies and defama- 
tion. Not content with the efforts which the 
jingo press and jingo individuals were uncon- 
sciously making in their behalf, they deliberately 
set on foot rumors which were intended to in- 
crease the distrust of German-Americans. I 
happen to know that during the first two years 
of the war, many of the stories about German 
attempts upon Canada, about German- American 
complicity in various plots, emanated from the 
offices of Captain von Papen and his associates. 
I know also that many plots in which German- 
Americans were concerned had been deliberately 
encouraged by von Papen and afterward as 
deliberately betrayed! Time after time, enter- 
prises with no chance of success were set on foot 
with the sole purpose of having them fail — for 
thus Germany could furnish to the world evi- 
dence that America was honeycombed with 
sedition and treachery — evidence which Ameri- 
cans themselves would be the first to accept. 

It was in reality a gigantic game of bluff. 
225 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Germany wished to give to the world convincing 
proof that all peoples of German descent were 
solidly supporting her. It was for this reason 
that reports of impossible German activities were 
set afloat; that rumors of Germans massing in 
the Maine woods, of aeroplane flights over 
Canada, and of all sorts of enterprises which had 
no basis in fact, were disseminated. And since 
many anti-German papers had been indiscreet 
enough to attack the German-Americans as dis- 
loyal, the German agents used and fomented 
these attacks for their own purposes. 

Who could gain by such a campaign of slander 
and the feeling it would produce ? Certainly not 
the Administration, which had great need of a 
united country behind it. Certainly not the 
American press, which was certain to lose cir- 
culation and advertising ; nor American business, 
which would suffer from the loss of thousands of 
customers of German descent, who would turn 
to the German merchant for their needs. Only 
two classes could profit : the German press, which 
was liberally subsidized by the German Govern- 
ment, and the German Government itself. 

It was to the interests of the administration at 
Washington to keep the country united by keep- 
ing the Germans disunited. The reverse condition 

226 



*My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

would tend to indicate that Americanism was a 
failure, since the country was divided at a 
critical time; it would seriously hamper the 
Government in its dealings with all the warring 
nations; and it would be of benefit only to the 
German societies and German press, and through 
them to the German Government. It was of 
benefit. The German newspapers increased their 
circulations and advertising revenues, in many 
cases by more than one hundred per cent. Ger- 
man banks and insurance companies received 
money that had formerly gone to American in- 
stitutions and which now went to swell the 
Imperial German War Loans. And the German 
clubs increased their memberships and became 
more and more instruments of power in the work 
of Germany. 

There is a typical German club in New York 
— the Deutscher Verein on Central Park South. 
During the war it has been used as a sub-office 
of the German General Staff. It was here that 
von Pap en used to store the dynamite that was 
needed in such enterprises as the Welland Canal 
plot. It was here that conspirators used to meet 
for conferences which no one, not even the other 
members of the club, could tell were not as in- 
nocent as they seemed. 

227 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

These German societies and other agencies 
were used not merely to promote sympathy for 
the German cause, but also to influence public 
opinion in matters of purely American interest. 
On January 21, 1916, Henry Weismann, presi- 
dent of the Brooklyn branch of the German- 
American National Alliance sent a report to 
headquarters in Chicago, regarding the activities 
of his organization in the recent elections. In 
the Twenty-third Congressional District of New 
York, Ellsworth J. Healy had been a candidate 
for Congress. Both he and another man, John 
J. Fitzgerald, candidate for Justice of the 
Supreme Court of New York, were regarded by 
German interests as "unneutral." They were 
defeated, and Weismann in commenting upon 
the matter, wrote: "The election returns prove 
that Deutschtum is armed and ahle, "when the 
word is given,, to seat its men." 

Even in the campaign for preparedness Ger- 
many took a hand. Berlin was appealed to in 
some cases as to the attitude that American citi- 
zens of German descent should adopt toward this 
policy. Professor Appelmann of the University 
of Vermont wrote to Dr. Paul Rohrbach, one of 
the advisers of the Wilhelmstrasse, requesting his 
advice upon the subject. Dr. Rohrbach replied 

228 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

that American Deutschtum should not be in 
favor of preparedness, because "it is quite con- 
ceivable that in the event of an American- J apan- 
ese voar, Germany might adopt an attitude of 
very benevolent neutrality toward Japan and so 
make it easier for Japan to defeat the United 
States/' And not long ago the Herold des 
Glaubens of St. Louis, made this statement: 
"When we found that the agitation for pre- 
paredness was in the interest of the munition 
makers and that its aim was a war with Germany, 
we certainly turned against it and we have 
agitated against it for the last three months." 

But this anti-militaristic spirit was a rather 
sudden development on the part of the German 
societies. In 1911, when a new treaty of arbitra- 
tion with Great Britain was under consideration, 
a group of roughs, led and organized by a Ger- 
man, violently broke up a meeting held under 
the auspices of the New York Peace Society to 
support that treaty. The man who broke that 
meeting up was Alphonse G. Koelble. It was 
this same Koelble who in 1915, when Germany's 
attack upon America was most bitter, organized 
a meeting of "The Friends of Peace," in order 
to protest against militarism! Strange, is it not, 



229 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

this inconsistency? Or was it that Mr. Koelble 
was acting under orders? 

Germany did these things not only for their 
political effect, but also because she knew that 
she could turn the evidence of her own meddling 
to account. It was for the same reason that 
Wolf von Igel, von Papen's secretary and suc- 
cessor, retained in his office a list of American 
citizens of German descent who "could be relied 
on." This list was found by agents of the De- 
partment of Justice when von Igel's office was 
raided. And the German agents were glad it 
was discovered. It gave to Americans an ad- 
ditional proof of the hold that Germany had 
obtained over a large group of German- Ameri- 
cans. 

It was as late as March, 1916, that the mem- 
bers of the Minnesota chapter of the German- 
American National Alliance received a circular, 
advising them of the attitude toward Germany 
of the various candidates for delegate to the 
national conventions of the different parties, and 
indicating by a star the names of those men 
"about whom it has been ascertained that they are 
in agreement with the views and wishes of 
Deutschland and that if elected they will act 
accordingly." I do not believe that the men who 

230 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

sent that circular expected it to be widely obeyed. 
But unquestionably they knew it would be made 
public. 

I think that if the German conspirators in 
America had confined their activities to this field 
they might ultimately have suceeded. They had 
managed to seduce a sufficient number of Ger- 
man-Americans to cause the entire German- 
American population to be regarded with sus- 
picion. They had contrived to discredit the 
pacifist and labor movements by making public 
their own connection with individuals in these 
bodies. They had aroused the public to such a 
pitch of distrust that in the Presidential cam- 
paign of 1916 the support of the "German vote" 
was regarded with distaste by both candidates. 
And they had helped to create so tremendous a 
dissension in America that friendships of long 
standing were broken up, German merchants in 
many communities lost all but their German 
customers, and German-Americans were be- 
labored in print with such twaddle as the follow- 
ing: 

"The German- Americans predominate in the 
grog-shops, low dives, pawn shops and numerous 
artifices for money-making and corrupt practices 
in politics." 

231 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

The foregoing statement, which I quote from 
a book, "German Conspiracies in the United 
States," written by a gentleman named Skaggs, 
is not perhaps a fair sample of the attacks made 
upon German- Americans by the press in general, 
but it is indicative of the heights to which feeling 
ran in the case of a few uninformed or hysterical 
persons. The point is that to a large portion of 
the populace the German- Americans had be- 
come enemies and objects of abuse. 

They, in turn, beset on all sides by a campaign 
of slander insidiously fostered by men to whom 
they had given their trust, did exactly what had 
been expected. They fell right into the arms 
of that movement which for fourteen years had 
been subsidized for that very purpose. They 
ceased to read American newspapers. They read 
German newspapers, many of which almost 
openly preached disloyalty to the United States. 
They became clannish and joined German 
societies which frequently contained German 
agents. They began to boycott American busi- 
ness houses and dealt only with those of German 
affiliations. 

Germany had gained her point. She alone 
could gain by the disunity of the country, It was 
to her advantage that the profits which had 

232 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

formerly gone to American business houses 
should be deflected to German corporations. 
And had she rested her efforts there, she might, 
as I say, have seen them produce results in the 
form of riots and armed dissension, which would 
have effectively prevented the United States 
from entering the war. 

But Germany over-reached herself. Em- 
boldened by the apparent success of their schemes, 
her principal agents, von Papen, Boy-Ed and 
von Bintelen (who had begun his work in Janu- 
ary, 1915) became careless, so far as secrecy was 
concerned, and so audacious in their plans that 
they betrayed themselves, perhaps intentionally, 
as a final demonstration of their power. The 
results you know. Insofar as the disclosures of 
their activities tended further to implicate the 
German-Americans, they did harm. But by 
those very disclosures the eyes of many German- 
Americans were opened to the true nature of the 
influence to which they had been subjected, and 
through that fact the worst element of the Ger- 
man propaganda in America received its death 
blow. 

To-day the United States is at war and no 
intelligent man now questions the loyalty of the 
majority of the citizens of German blood. That 

233 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

in the past their sympathies have been with 
Germany is unquestioned and, from their stand- 
point, entirely proper. That in many cases they 
view the participation of the United States in 
the war with regret is probable. But that they 
will stand up and if need be fight as staunchly 
as any other group in the country, no man may 
doubt. 

That is the story of the darkest chapter in the 
history of German intrigue. Other things have 
been done in this war at which a humane man 
may blush. Other crimes have been committed 
which not even the staunchest partisan can con- 
done. But at least it may be said that those 
things were done to enemies or to neutral people 
whom fortune had put in the way of injury. The 
betrayal of the German- Americans was a wanton 
crime against men whom every association and 
every tie of kinship or tradition should have 
served to protect. 

Germany has not yet abandoned that attacK. 
There are still spies in the Uinted States, you 
may be sure — still intrigues are being fostered. 
And there are still men who, consciously or un- 
consciously, are striving to discredit the German- 
Americans by presenting them as unwilling to 
bear their share in the burden of the nation's 

234 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

War. Only a week before these lines were written 
one man — George Sylvester Viereck — circulated 
a petition begging that Germans should not be 
sent to fight their countrymen, and an organiza- 
tion of German Protestant churches in America 
is repeating this plea. As a German whom 
fortune has placed outside the battle, and as one 
whose patriotism is extended toward blood rather 
than dynasty, I ask Mr. Viereck and these other 
gentlemen if they have not forgotten that many 
German-Americans have already shown their 
feelings by volunteering for service in this war — 
and if they have not also forgotten that the two 
great wars of American history were fought 
between men of the same blood. 

Ties of blood have never prevented men from 
fighting for a cause which they believed to be 
just. They will not in this war ! And when Mr. 
Viereck and his kind protest against the partici- 
pation in the war of men of any descent whatever, 
they imply that the American cause is not just 
and that it is not worthy of the support of the 
men they claim to represent. 

Is this their intention? 



CHAPTER XI. 

More about the German intrigue against 
the United States. German aims in Latin 
America. Japan and Germany in Mex- 
ico. What happened in Cuba? 

W A MERICAN intervention in Mexico would 
*■' mean another Ireland, another Poland — 
another sore spot in the world. Well, why not?" 
Those were almost the last words spoken to 
me when I left Germany in 1914, upon my ill- 
fated mission to England. I had in my pocket 
at the moment detailed memoranda of instruc- 
tions which, if they could be carried out, would 
insure such disturbances in Mexico that the 
United States would be compelled to intervene. 
I had been given authority to spend almost un- 
limited sums of money for the purchase of arms, 
for the bribery of officials — for anything in fact 
that would cause trouble in Mexico. And the 
words I have quoted were not spoken by an un- 
informed person with a taste for cynical com- 
ment; they were uttered by Major Kohnemann, 

236 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

of Abteilung III B of the German General 
Staff. They form a lucid and concrete explana- 
tion of German activities in Mexico during the 
past eight years. 

Long before this war began German agents 
were at work in Mexico, stirring up trouble in 
the hope of causing the United States to inter- 
vene. I have already told how, in 1910 and 1911, 
Germany had encouraged Japan and Mexico in 
negotiating a treaty that was to give Japan an 
important foothold in Mexico. I have told how, 
after this treaty was well on the v/ay to comple- 
tion, Germany saw to it that knowledge of the 
projected terms was brought to the attention of 
the United States — thereby indirectly causing 
Diaz's abdication. That instance is not an 
isolated case of Germany meddling in Mexican 
affairs. Rather is it symptomatic of the tra- 
ditional policy of Wilhelmstrasse in regard to 
America. 

It may be well to examine this policy more 
closely than I have done. Long ago Germany 
saw in South America a fertile field for exploita- 
tion, not only in a commercial way, in which it 
presented excellent opportunities to German 
manufacturers, but also as a possible opportunity 
for expansion which had been denied her else- 

237 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

where. All of the German colonies were in torrid 
climates, in which life for the white man was 
attended with tremendous hardships and ex- 
ploitation and colonization were consequently 
impeded. Only in the Far East and in South 
America could she find territories either unpro- 
tected through their own weakness, or so thinly 
settled that they offered at once a temptation 
and an opportunity to the nation with imperial- 
istic ambitions. In the former quarter she was 
blocked by a concert of the Powers, many of 
them actuated by similar aims, but all working at 
such cross purposes that aggression by any one 
of them was impossible. I have already alluded 
to the result of such a situation in my discussion 
of the Anglo-Persian Agreement. In South 
America there was only one formidable obstacle 
to German expansion — the Monroe Doctrine. 

I am stating the case with far less than its true 
complexity. There were, it is true, many facts 
in the form of conflicting rivalries of the Powers 
as well as internal conditions in South America, 
that would have had a deterrent effect upon the 
German program. Nevertheless, it is certain 
that the prime factor in keeping Germany out 
of South America was the traditional policy of 
the United States; and, so far as the German 

238 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Government's attitude in the matter is concerned, 
it is the only phase of the problem worth con- 
sidering. 

Germany had no intention of securing terri- 
tory by a war of conquest. Her method was far 
simpler and much less assailable. She promptly 
instituted a peaceful invasion of various parts of 
the continent; first in the persons of merchants 
who captured trade but did not settle perman- 
ently in the country ; second, by means of a vast 
army of immigrants, who, unlike those who a 
generation before had come to the United States, 
settled, but retained their German citizenship. 
With this unnaturalized element she hoped to 
form a nucleus in many of the important South 
American countries, which, wielding a tre- 
mendous commercial power and possessing a 
political influence that was considerable, although 
indirect, would aid her in determining the course 
of South American politics so that by a form of 
peaceful expansion she could eventually achieve 
her aims. 

Was this a dream? At any rate it received 
the support of many of the ablest statesmen of 
Germany, who duly set about the task of dis- 
crediting the Monroe Doctrine in the eyes of the 
very people it was designed to protect, so that 

239 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

the United States, if it ever came forcibly to de- 
fend the Doctrine, would find itself opposed not 
only by Germany but by South America as well. 

Now, the easiest way to cast suspicion upon a 
policy is to discredit the sponsor of it. In the 
case of the United States and South America 
this was not at all difficult; for the southern 
nations already possessed a well defined fear and 
a dislike of their northern neighbor that were 
not by any means confined to the more ignorant 
portions of the population. Fear of American 
aggression has been somewhat of a bugaboo in 
many quarters. Recognizing this, Germany, 
which has always adopted the policy of aggra- 
vating ready-made troubles for her own ends, 
steadily fomented that fear by means of a quiet 
but well-conducted propaganda, and also by 
seeking to force the United States into taking 
action that would justify that fear. 

As a means toward securing this latter end, 
Mexico presented itself as a heaven-sent oppor- 
tunity. Even in the days when it was, to out- 
ward eyes, a well-ordered community, there had 
been men in the United States who had expressed 
themselves in favor of an expansion southward 
which would result in the ultimate absorption of 
Mexico; and although such talk had never at- 



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My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

tracted much attention in the quarter from which 
it emanated, there were those who saw to it that 
proposals of this sort received an effective pub- 
licity south of the Isthmus. Given, then, a 
Mexico in which discontent had become so acute 
that it was being regarded with alarm by Ameri- 
can and foreign investors, the possibility of in- 
tervention became more immediate and the op- 
portunity of the trouble-maker increased pro- 
portionately. 

Germany's first step in this direction, was, as 
you know, the encouragement of a Japanese- 
Mexican alliance, the failure of which was a vital 
part of her program. It was a risky under- 
taking, for if, by any chance, the alliance were 
successfully concluded, the United States might 
well hesitate to attack the combined forces of the 
two countries; and Mexico, fortified by Japan, 
would present a bulwark against the real or 
fancied danger of American expansion, that, for 
a time at least, would effectually allay the fears 
of South America. That risk Germany took, 
and insofar as she had planned to prevent the 
alliance scored a success. That she failed in her 
principal aim was due to the anti-imperialistic 
tendencies of the United States and the states- 



241 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

manship of Senor Limantour, rather than to any 
other cause. 

Then came the Madero Administration with 
its mystical program of reform — and an op- 
position headed by almost all of the able men in 
the republic, both Mexican and foreign. Bitterly 
fought by the ring of Cientificoes, who saw the 
easy spoils of the past slipping from their hands ; 
distrusted by many honest men, who sincerely 
believed that Mexico was better ruled by an able 
despot than by an upright visionary; hampered 
by the aloofness of foreign business and govern- 
ments, waiting for a success which they alone 
could insure, before they should approve and 
support ; and constantly beset with imeasiness by 
the incomprehensible attitude of the Taft Ad- 
ministration and of its Ambassador — the fate of 
the Madero Government was easily foreseen. 

Before Madero had been in power for three 
months this opposition had taken form as a cam- 
paign of obstruction in the Mexican Chamber of 
Deputies, supported by the press, controlled 
almost exclusively by the Cientificoes and by 
foreign capitalists ; by the clergy, who had reason 
to suspect the Government of anti-clerical ten- 
dencies; and by isolated groups of opportunity 
seekers who saw in the Administration an ob- 

242 



'My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

stacle to their own political and economic aims. 
The Madero family were represented as incom- 
petent and self-seeking; and in a short time the 
populace, which a month before had hailed the 
new government as a savior of the country, had 
been persuaded that its program of economic 
reform had been merely a political pretense, and 
accordingly added its strength to the party of 
the Opposition. 

Here was tinder aplenty for a conflagration 
of sorts. Germany applied the torch at its most 
inflammable spot. 

That inflammable spot happened to be a 
man — Pazcual Orozco. Orozco had been one of 
Madero's original supporters, and in the days 
of the Madero revolution had rendered valuable 
services to his chief. An ex-muleteer, uncouth 
and without education, he possessed considerable 
ability; but his vanity and reputation were far 
in excess of his attainments. Unquestionably he 
had expected that Madero's success would mean 
a brilliant future for himself, although it is dif- 
ficult to tell in just what direction his ambitions 
pointed. Madero had placed him in command of 
the most important division of the Federal army, 
but this presumably did not content him- At any 
rate, early in February, 1912, he made a demand 

243 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

upon the Government for two hundred and fifty 
thousand pesos, threatening that he would with- 
draw from the services of the Government unless 
this "honorarium" — honesty would call it a bribe 
— were paid to him. Madero refused his demand, 
but with mistaken leniency retained Orozco 
in office — and on February 27, Orozco repaid 
this trust by turning" traitor at Chihuahua, and 
involving in his defection six thousand of Mex- 
ico's best troops as well as a quantity of supplies. 
Now mark the trail of German intrigue. In 
Mexico City, warmly supporting, the Madero 
Government, but of little real power in the coun- 
try, was the German Minister, Admiral von 
Hintze. Under normal circumstances, his in- 
fluence would have been of great value in. helping 
to render secure .the position of Madero ; but with 
means of communication disrupted as they were 
to a large extent, his power was inconceivably 
less than that of the German consuls, all of Avhom 
were well liked and respected by the Mexicans 
with whom they were in close touch. Apart from 
their political office, these men represented Ger- 
man business interests in Mexico, particularly in 
the fields of hardware and banking'. In the three 
northern cities of Parral, Chihuahua and Zaca- 
tecas, the German consuls were hardware mer- 

244 



] My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

chants. In Torreon the consul was director of 
the German bank. As such it would seem that it 
was to their interests to work for the preservation 
of a stable government in Mexico. And yet the 
fact remains that when Orozco first began to show 
signs of discontent, these men encouraged him 
with a support that was both moral and financial ; 
and when the general finally turned traitor, it 
was my old friend, Consul Kueck, who, as Presi- 
dent of the Chamber of Commerce of Chihuahua, 
voted to support him and to recognize Orozco's 
supremacy in that State! 

I leave it to the reader to decide whether it was 
the Minister or the consuls who really repre- 
sented the German Government. 

It would be idle to attempt to trace more than 
in the briefest way Germany's part in the events 
of the next few years. Always she followed a 
policy of obstruction and deceit. During the 
months immediately succeeding the Orozco out- 
break, at the very moment that von Hintze was 
lending his every effort to the preservation of the 
Madero regime, sending to Berlin reports which 
over and over again reiterated his belief that 
Madero could, if given a free hand, restore order 
in the republic, the German consuls were openly 
fomenting disorder in the North. 

245 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

They were particularly well equipped to make 
trouble, by their position in the community and 
by the character and reputation of the rest of the 
German population. It may be said with safety 
that however careless Germany has been about 
the quality of the men whom she has allowed to 
emigrate to other countries, her representatives 
throughout all of Latin- America have been con- 
spicuous for their commercial attainments and 
for their social adaptibility. This, in a large way 
has been responsible for the German commercial 
success in Central and South America. As bank- 
ers they have been honest and obliging in the 
matter of credit. As merchants they have 
adapted themselves to the local conditions and to 
the habits of their customers with notable success. 
In consequence they have been well-liked as in- 
dividuals and have been of immense value in in- 
creasing the prestige of the German Empire. In 
Mexico they were the only foreigners who were 
not disliked by either peon or aristocrat; and it 
is significant to note that during seven years of 
unrest in that country, Germans alone among 
peoples of European stock have remained prac- 
tically unmolested by any party. 

Consider of what service this condition was in 
their campaign. Respected, influential, they 

246 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

were in an excellent position to stimulate what- 
ever anti- American feeling existed in the Latin 
American countries. At the same time, they 
were equally well situated to encourage the un- 
rest in Mexico that would be the surest guarantee 
of American intervention — and the coalition 
against the United States which intervention 
would be certain to provoke. They made the 
utmost use of their advantage, and they did it 
without arousing suspicion or rebuke. 

After the failure of the short-lived Orozco out- 
break, events in Mexico seemed to promise a 
peaceful solution of all difficulties. Many of 
Madero's opponents declared a truce, and the 
irreconcileables were forced to bide their time in 
apparent harmlessness. In November came the 
rebellion of Felix Diaz, fathered by a miscel- 
laneous group of conspirators who hoped to find 
in the nephew sufficient of the characteristics of 
the great Porflrio to serve their purposes. This 
venture failed also. Again Madero showed a 
mistaken leniency in preserving the life of Diaz. 
He paid for it with his life. Out of this uprising 
came the coup d'etat of General Huerta — made 
possible by a dual treachery — and the murder of 
the only man who at the time gave promise of 
eventually solving the Mexican problem. 

247 



[ My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

What share German agents had in that tragic 
affair I do not know. You may be sure that they 
took advantage of any opportunity that pre- 
sented itself to encourage the conspirators in a 
project that gave such rich promise of aiding 
them in their purposes. I pass on to the next 
positive step in their campaign. That was a 
repetition of their old plan of inserting the 
Japanese question into the general muddle. 

The Japanese question in Mexico is a very 
real one. I know — and the United States Gov- 
ernment presumably knows, also — that Japan 
is the only nation which has succeeded in gaining 
a permanent foothold in Mexico. I know that 
spies and secret agents in the guise of peddlars, 
engineers, fishermen, farmers, charcoal burners, 
merchants and even officers in the armies of every 
Mexican leader have been scattered throughout 
the country. The number of these latter I have 
heard estimated at about eight hundred; at any 
rate it is considerable. There are also about ten 
thousand Japanese who have no direct connection 
with Tokio but who are practically all men of 
military age, either unmarried or without wives 
in Mexico — most of them belonging to the army 
or navy reserve. And, like the Germans, the 
Japanese never lose their connection with the 

248 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

Government in their capacity as private in- 
dividuals. 

Through the great government-owned steam- 
ship line, the Toyo Kisen Kaisha, the Japanese 
Government controls the land for a Japanese 
coaling station at Manzanilla. At Acapulco a 
Japanese company holds a land concession on a 
high hill three miles from the sea. It is difficult 
to see what legitimate use a fishing company 
could make of this location. It is, however, an 
ideal site for a wireless station. In Mexico City 
an intimate friend of the Japanese Charge 
d' Affaires owns a fortress-like building in the 
very heart of the capital. Another Japanese 
holds, under a ninety-nine year lease, an 
L-shaped strip of land partly surrounding and 
completely commanding the water works of the 
capital of Oxichimilco. The land is undeveloped. 
Both of these Japanese are well supplied with 
money and have been living in Mexico City for 
several years. Neither one has any visible means 
of support. And in all of the years of revolution 
in Mexico no Japanese have been killed — except 
by Villa. He has caused many of them to be 
executed, but always those that were masquer- 
ading as Chinese. Naturally a government can- 
not protest under such circumstances. 

249 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

These facts may or may not be significant. 
They serve to lend color to the convictions of 
anti- Japanese agitators in the United States, and 
as such they have been of value to Germany. 
Accordingly it was suggested to Senor Huerta 
that an alliance with Japan would be an excellent 
protective measure for him to take. 

Huerta had two reasons for looking with favor 
upon this proposal. He was very decidedly in 
the bad graces of Washington, and he was con- 
stantly menaced by the presence in Mexico of 
Felix Diaz, to whom he had agreed to resign the 
Presidency. Diaz was too popular to be shot, 
too strong politically to be exiled and yet — 
he must be removed. Here, thought Huerta, was 
an opportunity of killing two birds with one 
stone. He therefore sent Diaz to Japan, ostens- 
ibly to thank the Japanese Government for its 
participation in the Mexican Centennial celebra- 
tion, three years before, but in reality to begin 
negotiations for a treaty which should follow the 
lines of the one unsuccessfully promulgated in 
1911. 

Senor Diaz started for Japan — but he never 
arrived there. Somehow the State Department 
at Washington got news of the proposed treaty 



250 



] My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

' — how, only the German agents know — and 
Senor Diaz's course was diverted. 

Meanwhile, in spite of the strained relations 
between Huerta and Washington, Germany was 
aiding the Mexican president with money and 
supplies. In the north, Consuls Kueck of Chi- 
huahua, Sommer of Durango, Muller of Her- 
mosillo, and Weber of Juarez were exhibiting 
the same interest in the Huertista troops that 
they had formerly displayed toward Orozco. 
Kueck, as I happened to learn later, had financed 
Salvator Mercado, the general who had so 
obligingly tried to have me shot ; and at the same 
time he was assiduously spreading reports of 
unrest in Mexico, and even attempted to bribe 
some Germans to leave the country, upon the 
plea that their lives were in danger. 

When I raided the German Consulate at Chi- 
huahua, I found striking documentary proof of 
his activities in this direction. There were letters 
there proving that he had paid to various Ger- 
mans sums ranging as high as fifty dollars a 
month, upon condition that they should remain 
outside of Mexico. These letters, in many cases, 
showed plainly that this was done in order to 
make it seem that the unrest was endangering 
the lives of foreign inhabitants ; in spite of which 

251 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

several of the recipients complained that their 
absence from Mexico was causing them consider- 
able financial loss, and showed an evident desire 
to brave whatever dangers there might be — if 
they could secure the permission of Consul 
Kueck. 

During the year and more that Huerta held 
power, Germany followed the same tactics. I 
need not remind you of the attempt to supply 
Huerta with munitions after the United States 
had declared an embargo upon them; or that it 
has been generally admitted that the real purpose 
of the seizure of Vera Cruz by United States 
marines was to prevent the German steamer 
Ypiranga from delivering her cargo of arms to 
the Mexicans. That is but one instance of the 
way in which German policy worked — a policy 
which, as I have indicated, was opposed to the 
true interests of Mexico, and has been solely 
directed against the United States. Up to the 
very outbreak of the war it continued. After 
Villa's breach with Carranza, emissaries of 
Consul Kueck approached the former with offers 
of assistance. Strangely enough he rejected 
them, principally because he hates the Germans 
for the assistance they gave his old enemy, 
Orozco. Villa had, moreover, a personal grudge 

252 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

against Kueck. When General Mercado was 
defeated at Ojinaga, papers were found in his 
effects that implicated the Consul in a conspiracy 
against the Constitutionalists, although at the 
time Kueck professed friendship for Villa and 
was secretly doing all he could to increase the 
friction that existed between the general and 
Mercado. Villa had sworn vengeance against the 
double-dealer ; and Kueck, in alarm, fled into the 
United States. 

With the outbreak of the Great War the situ- 
tion changed in one important particular. Here- 
tofore, German activities had been part of a plan 
of attack upon the prestige of the United States. 
Now they became necessary as a measure of de- 
fense. Before two months had passed it became 
evident to the German Government that the 
United States must be forced into a war with 
Mexico in order to prevent the shipment of 
munitions to Europe. 

So began the last stage of the German intrigue 
in Mexico — an intrigue which still continues. As 
a preliminary step, Germany had organized her 
own citizens in that country into a well-drilled 
military unit — a little matter which Captain von 
Papen had attended to during the spring of 1914. 
One can read much between the lines of the re- 

253 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

port sent to the Imperial Chancellor by Admiral 
von Hintze, commenting upon the work of 
Captain von Papen in this direction. The 
Admiral says in part: "He showed especial in- 
dustry in organizing the Germany colony for 
purposes of self-defense, and out of this shy and 
factious material, unwilling to undertake any 
military activity, he obtained what there was to 
be got." 

Von Hintze significantly recommends that the 
captain should be decorated with the fourth class 
of the Order of the Red Eagle. 

As I have stated elsewhere, I left Germany in 
October of 1914, with a detailed plan of cam- 
paign for the "American front," as Dr. Albert 
once put it. My final instructions were simple 
and explicit. 

"There must be constant uprisings in Mexico," 
I was told, in effect. "Villa, Carranza, must be 
reached. Zapata must continue his maraudings. 
It does not matter in the least how you produce 
these results. Merely produce them. All consuls 
have been instructed to furnish you with what- 
ever sums you need — and they will not ask you 
any questions/' 

Rather complete, was it not? I left with every 
intention of carrying the instructions out — and in 

254 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

a little over a week was made hors de combat. It 
was then that von Rintelen, who had already 
planned to come over to the United States in 
order to inaugurate a vast blockade running sys- 
tem, undertook to add my undertaking to his 
own responsibilities. 

What von Rintelen did is well known, so I 
shall only summarize it here. His first act was 
an attempted restitution of General Huerta, 
which he knew was the most certain method of 
causing intervention. Into this enterprise both 
Boy-Ed and von Papen were impressed, and the 
three men set about the task of making arrange- 
ments with former Huertistas for a new uprising 
to be financed by German money. They sent 
agents to Barcelona to persuade the former 
dictator to enter into the scheme; and finally, 
when the general was on his way to America, they 
attempted to arrange it so that he should arrive 
safely in New York and ultimately in Mexico. 
It was a plan remarkably well conceived and 
well executed. It would have succeeded but for 
one thing. General Huerta was captured by 
the United States authorities at the very moment 
that he tried to cross from Texas into Mexico ! 

But the indomitable von Rintelen was not dis- 
couraged. He had but one purpose — to make 

255 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

trouble — and he made it with a will. He sent 
money to Villa, and then, like the philanthropist 
in Chesterton's play, supported the other side by 
aiding Carranza, financing Zapata and starting 
two other revolutions in Mexico. Meanwhile 
anti- American feeling continued to be stirred up. 
German papers in Mexico presented the Father- 
land's case as eloquently as they did elsewhere, 
and to a far more appreciative audience. Car- 
ranza was encouraged in his rather unfriendly 
attitude toward Washington. In a word, no 
step was neglected which would embarrass the 
Wilson Administration and make peace between 
the two countries more certain or more difficult 
to maintain. 

Need I complete the story? Is it necessary to 
tell how, after the recall of von Papen and 
Boy-Ed and the escape of von Bintelen, Mexico 
continued to be used as the catspaw of the Ger- 
man plotters ? Every one knows the events of the 
last few months ; of the concentration of German 
reservists in various parts of Mexico; of the 
bitter attacks made upon the United States by 
pro-German newspapers; and of the reports, 
greatly exaggerating German activities in Mex- 
ico, which have been circulated with the direct 
intention of provoking still more ill-feeling be- 

256 



MISCELLANEOUS. No. 13 (1916). 



SWORN STATEMENT 



HOK.ST YON DEE OOLTZ, 



ALIAS 



BKIDGEMAN TAYLOR. 



Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty. 
April 1916. 



Cover of the British White Paper, containing von der Goltz's 
confession, and referring to him as "Bridgeman Taylor." 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

tween the two countries by leading Americans to 
believe that Mexico is honey-combed with Ger- 
man conspiracies. 

These activities have not applied to Mexico 
alone. It is significant that twice in February of 
this year the Venezuelan Government has de- 
clined to approve of the request of President 
Wilson that other neutral nations join him in 
breaking diplomatic relations with Germany as 
a protest against submarine warfare, and that 
many Venezuelan papers have stated that this 
refusal is due to the representations of resident 
Germans, who are many and influential. These 
are, of course, legitimate activities, but they are 
in every case attended by a threat. Revolutions 
are easily begun in Latin America, and the 
obstinate government can always be brought to 
a reasonable viewpoint by the example of recent 
uprisings or revolutions, financed by Germany, 
in Costa Rica, Peru and Cuba. Within a very 
recent time, rumors were afloat in Venezuela that 
Germany was assisting General Cipriano Castro 
in the revolutionary movement that he had been 
organizing in Porto Rico. It was reported that 
there were on the Colombian frontier many dis- 
affected persons who would gladly join Castro 



257 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

if he landed in Colombia and marched on Cara- 
cas, as he did successfully in 1890. 

For several years the Telefunken Co., a Ger- 
man corporation, has tried to obtain from the 
Venezuelan Government a concession to operate 
a wireless plant, which should be of greater power 
than any other in South America. When this 
proposal was last made, certain ministers were 
for accepting it, but the majority of the Govern- 
ment realized the uses to which the plant could be 
put and refused to grant the concession. An 
alternative proposal, made by the Government, 
to establish a station of less strength, was rejected 
by the company. 

Germany has steadily sought such wireless 
sites throughout this region. Several have been 
established in Mexico, and in 1914 it was through 
a wireless station in Colombia, that the German 
Admiral von Spee was enabled to keep informed 
of the movements of the squadron of Admiral Sir 
Christopher Cradock — information which re- 
sulted in the naval battle in Chilean waters with 
a loss of three British battleships. It was after 
this battle that Colombia ordered the closing of 
all wireless stations on its coasts. 

In Cuba, too, the hand of Germany has been 
evident, in spite of the disclaimers which have 

258 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

been made by both parties in the recent rebellion. 
That rebellion grew out of the contested election 
in November, in which both President Menocal 
and the Liberal candidate, Alfredo Zayas, 
claimed a victory. It is strange if this is the real 
cause of the uprising, that hostilities did not 
begin until February 9, when General Gomez, 
himself an ex-president, began a revolt in the 
eastern portion of the island. The date is im- 
portant; it was barely a week before new elec- 
tions were to be held in two disputed provinces 
and only sice days after the United States had 
severed diplomatic relations with the German 
Government, and but four days after President 
MenocaVs Government had declared its intention 
of following the action of the United States. 

A little study of the personnel and develop- 
ments of the rebellion form convincing evidence 
as to its true backing. The Liberal Party is 
strongly supported by the Spanish element of 
the population, who are almost unanimously pro- 
German in their sympathies. All over the island, 
both Germans and Spaniards have been arrested 
for complicity in the uprising. Nor have the 
clergy escaped. Literally, dozens of bishops have 
been jailed in Havana, upon the same charges. 

It is also a notorious fact that the Mexicans 
259 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

have supported the Liberals, and that the staffs 
of the Liberal newspapers are almost exclusively 
composed of Mexican journalists. These news- 
papers were suppressed at the beginning of the 
revolution. 

But far more significant are the developments 
in the actual fighting. 

Most of the action has taken place in the east- 
ern provinces of Camaguey, Oriente and Santa 
Clara — in which the most fertile fields of sugar 
cane are situated. The damage to the cane fields 
has been estimated at 5,000,000 tons and is, from 
a military standpoint, unnecessary. 

Col. Rigoberto Fernandez one of the revolu- 
tionary leaders, stated that the rebels were plenti- 
fully supplied with hand-grenades and artillery 
— although the reports prove that they had none. 
Was this an empty boast — or may there be a con- 
nection between Fernandez's statement and the 
capture by the British of three German ships, 
which were found off the Azores, laden with mines 
and arms? 

I was in Havana in the latter part of March 
— upon a private errand, although the Cuban 
papers persisted in imputing sinister designs 
to me. Naturally, the Germans were not in- 
clined to tell all their secrets, but my Mexican 

260 



'My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

acquaintances, all of whom were well informed re- 
garding Cuban affairs, gave me considerable in- 
formation. Among other Mexicans I met 
(General Joaquin Maas, the former general of 
the Federal forces under Huerta. The genera] 
has since made peace with Carranza and was at 
this time acting as the latter's go-between in 
negotiations with Germany. When I last saw 
Maas, it was after the battle of El Paredo. He 
was about to blow out his brains, but one of his 
lieutenants elegantly informed him that he was 
a fool and dissuaded him from suicide. Maas re- 
ceived me with the courtesy due a former op- 
ponent and was not averse to telling me much 
about the situation. I also had ample occasion to 
speak with Spaniards, whose sympathies were 
decidedly pro-German. Little by little I was 
enabled to acquire a rather complete idea — not of 
the issues underlying the Cuban revolution — but 
who had brought matters to a head. The answer 
may be found in one word — Germany. German 
agents — notably one Dr. Hawe ben Hawas, who 
recently took a mysterious botanizing expedition 
throughout that part of Cuba, which later be- 
came the scene of revolutionary activities, and 
who has thrice been arrested as a German spy — 
saw in the political unrest of the country another 

261 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

opportunity to create a diversion in favor of 
Germany. Cuba at peace was a valuable eco- 
nomic ally of the United States. Cuba in re- 
bellion was a source of annoyance to this country, 
since it meant intervention, the political value of 
which was unfavorable to the United States, and 
a serious loss in sugar, which is one of the most 
important ingredients in the manufacture of 
several high explosives. 

Hence the burning of millions of tons of sugar 
cane. Hence the rebel seizure of Santiago de 
Cuba. Hence the large number of negroes who 
joined the rebel army, and whose labor is indis- 
pensable in the production of sugar. 

The ironic part of it all is that Germany had 
nothing to gain by a change of government in 
Cuba. Any Cuban government must have a 
sympathetic attitude toward the United States. 
What Germany wanted was a disruption of the 
orderly life of the country — and she wanted it to 
continue for as long a time as possible. 

At the present writing the Cuban rebellion is 
ended. General Gomez and his army have been 
captured, President Menocal is firmly seated in 
power again, and the rebels hold only a few un- 
important points. But much damage has been 
done in the lessening of the sugar supply — and 

262 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

the rebellion has also served its purpose as an 
illustration of Germany's ability to make trouble. 

Germany has played a consistent game 
throughout. She has sought to use all the exist- 
ing weaknesses of the world for her own pur- 
poses — all the rivalries, all the fears, all the an- 
tipathies, she has utilized as fuel for her own 
fire. And yet, although she has played the 
game with the utmost foresight, with a skill 
that is admirable in spite of its perverse uses, and 
with an unfailing assurance of success — she has 
come to the fourth year of the Great War with 
the fact of failure staring her in the face. 

But she has not given up. You may be sure 
that she has not given up. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The last stand of German intrigue. 
Germany's spy system in America. What is 
coming? 

A S I write these last few pages three clippings 
•*■' from recent newspapers lie before me on 
my desk. One of them tells of the new era of 
good feeling that exists between the governments 
of Mexico and the United States, and speaks of 
the alliance of Latin- American republics against 
German autocracy. 

Another tells how the first contingent of 
American troops have landed in France, after a 
successful battle with a submarine fleet. And a 
third speaks of the victorious advance of the 
troops of Democratic Russia, after the world had 
begun to believe that Russia had forgotten the 
war in her new freedom. 

I read them over again and I think that each 
one of these clippings, if true, writes "failure" 
once again upon the book of German diplomacy. 

I remember a day not so very many months 
264 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

ago, when a man with whom I had some business 
in — for me — less quiet days, came to see me. 

"B. E. is in town," he said quietly. "He says 
he must see you. Can you meet him at the 
■ Restaurant to-night?" 

Boy-Ed! I was not surprised that he should 
be in this country, for I knew the man's audacity. 
But what could he want of me? Well, it would 
do no harm to meet him, I thought, and, anyway, 
my curiosity was aroused. 

I nodded. 

"I'll be there," I said. "At what hour?" 

"Six-thirty," my friend replied. "It's only for 
a minute. He is leaving to-night." 

That evening for the first time in two years 
I saw the man who had done his share in the 
undermining of America. I did not ask him 
what his presence in this country meant, and 
needless to say, he did not inform me. 

Our business was of a different character. I 
had just arranged to write a series of newspaper 
articles exposing the operations of the Kaiser's 
secret service and Boy-Ed tried to induce me to 
suppress them. 

"I cannot do it," I told him. 

But the captain showed a remarkable knowl- 
edge of my private affairs. 

265 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

"Under your contract," he said, "the articles 
cannot be published until you have endorsed 
them. As you have not yet affixed your signa- 
ture to them, you can suppress them by merely 
withholding your endorsement. 

This I declined to do and our conversation 
ended. 

Shortly afterward, Boy-Ed returned to Ger- 
many on the U-53. He did not attempt to see 
me again, but three times within the following 
weeks, attempts were made upon my life. Later, 
pressure was brought to bear from sources close 
to the German Embassy, but they failed to 
secure the suppression of the articles. 

But my curiosity was aroused as to the mean- 
ing of Boy-Ed's presence here and I set to work 
to discover the purpose of it. This was not dif- 
ficult, for although I have ceased to be a secret 
agent, I am still in touch with many who 
formerly gave me information, and I know ways 
of discovering many things I wish to learn. 

Soon I had the full story of Boy-Ed's latest 
activities in this country. 

He had, I learned, gone first to Mexico in an 
attempt to pave the way for that last essay at a 
Mexican-Japanese alliance, which the discovery 
of the famous Zimmermann note later made 

266 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

public. Whether he had succeeded or no, I did 
not discover at the time. But what was more 
important, I did learn that while he was in Mex- 
ico, Boy-Ed had selected and established several 
submarine bases for Germany! His plans had 
also carried him to San Francisco, to which he 
had gone disguised only by a mustache. There 
he had identified several men who were needed 
by the counsel of the defense of the German 
Consul Bopp, who had been arrested on a charge 
of conspiracy and for fomenting sedition within 
the United States. 

From the Pacific Coast Boy-Ed had gone to 
Kansas City and had bought off a witness who 
had intended to testify for the United States in 
the trial of certain German agents. Thence, 
after a private errand of his own, he had made 
his way to New York, en route to Newport and 
Germany. 

It may be well here to comment upon one 
feature of the Zimmermann note which has 
generally escaped attention. It was through no 
blunder of the German Government that that 
document came into possession of the United 
States, as I happen to know. I have pointed out 
before that diplomatic negotiations are carried 
through in the following manner. The prelimin- 

267 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

ary negotiations are conducted by men of un- 
official standing and it is not until the attitude 
of the various governments involved is thoroughly 
understood by each of them that final negotia- 
tions are drawn up. ]NTow, although no negotia- 
tions had taken place between Germany, Japan 
and Mexico, the form of the Zimmermann note 
would seem to indicate that there was a thorough 
understanding between these countries. They 
were drawn up in this form with a purpose. 
Germany wished the United States to conclude 
that Mexico and Japan were hostile to her; 
Germany hoped that this country would be out- 
wardly silent about the Zimmermann note but 
would take some diplomatic action against Mex- 
ico and Japan which would inevitably draw these 
two countries into an anti- American alliance. 

Did President Wilson perceive this thoroughly 
Teutonic plot? I cannot say; but at any rate 
upon February 28, he astounded America by 
revealing once again Germany's evil intentions 
toward the United States, and by so doing not 
only defeated the German Government's par- 
ticular plan but effectively cemented public 
opinion in this country, bringing it to a unani- 
mous support of the government in the crisis 
which was slowly driving it toward war. 

268 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

That marked the last stand of German in- 
trigue, as it was conducted before the war. Now 
there is a new danger — a danger whose concrete 
illustration lies before me in the account of that 
first engagement between United States war- 
ships and German submarines. 

The people of the United States, just entered 
into active participation in the war, are faced with 
a new peril — the betrayal of military and naval 
secrets to representatives of the German Gov- 
ernment working in this country. Not only was 
it known to Germany that American troops had 
been sent to France, but the very course that the 
transports were to take had been communicated 
to Berlin. It is probable that other news of equal 
value has been or is being sent to Germany at 
the present time; and the United States is con- 
fronted with the possibility of submarine attacks 
upon its troop ships, as well as other dangers 
which, if not properly combated, may result in 
serious losses and greatly hamper it in its con- 
duct of the war. 

What exactly is this spy peril which this 
country now faces and which constitutes a far 
greater, because less easily combated danger than 
actual warfare? 

How can it be got rid of? 
269 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

These are the questions which the American 
people and the American Government are ask- 
ing themselves and must ask themselves if they 
are to bear an effective share in the war in which 
they are now engaged. 

Because of my former connection with the 
German Government and my work as a secret 
agent both in Europe and America, in the former 
of which I was brought into intimate contact with 
the workings of the secret service in other coun- 
tries, I am prepared to give a reliable account 
of the general structure and workings of the 
German spy system in the United States as it is 
to-day. 

It is important to remember that the secret 
diplomatic service, as it was conducted in this 
country before the war, and with which I was 
connected, is entirely different both in its per- 
sonnel and methods with the spy system which is 
in operation to-day. A little further on I shall 
point out why this is so and why it must be so. 

Before the entry of the United States into the 
war, the principal activities of the German 
Government's agents were confined to the 
fomenting of strikes in munitions plants and 
other war activities, the organizing of plots to 



270 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

blow up ships, canals, or bridges — anything which 
would hamper the transportation of supplies to 
the Allies — and the inciting of sedition by stir- 
ing up trouble between German- Americans and 
Americans of other descent. All of these acts 
were committed in order to prevent you from 
aiding in any way the enemies of Germany; and 
also, by creating disorder in this country in peace 
times to furnish you with an object lesson of 
what could be done in war times. 

These things were planned, overseen and 
executed by Germans and by other enemies of 
the Allies, under the leadership of men like von 
Papen, who were accredited agents of the Ger- 
man Government and who were protected by 
diplomatic immunity. 

Now that war has come an entirely new task 
is before the German Government and an en- 
tirely new set of people are needed to do it. War- 
time spying is absolutely different from the work 
which was done before the war, and the two have 
no connection with each other — except as the 
work done before the war has prepared the way 
for the work which is being done now. 

And whereas the work done before the war 
was conducted by Germans, the present work, 
for very obvious reasons, cannot be done by any 

271 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

one who is a German or who is likely to be sus- 
pected of German affiliations. 

I venture to say that not one per cent, of the 
persons who are engaged in spying for the 
German Government at the present time are 
either of German birth or descent. 

I say this, not because I know how the German 
secret service is being conducted in this country, 
but because I know how it has been conducted in 
other countries. 

Let me explain. It is obvious that such 
activities as the inciting to strikes, and the con- 
spiring which were done in the last three years 
could be safely conducted by Germans, because 
the two countries were at peace. The moment 
that war was declared, every German became an 
object of suspicion, and his usefulness in spying 
■ — that is, the obtaining of military, naval, politi- 
cal and diplomatic secrets — was ended immedi- 
ately. For that reason Germany and every other 
government which has spies in the enemy country 
make a practice during war of employing prac- 
tically no known citizens of its own country. 

At the present time more than ninety per cent, 
of the German spies in England are English- 
men. The rest are Russians, Dutchmen, Rou- 



272 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

manians — what you will — anything but Ger- 
mans. 

One of the former heads of the French secret 
service in this country was a man who called him- 
self Guillaume. His real name is Wilhelm and 
he was born in Berlin!* 

For that reason to arrest such men as Carl 
Heynen or Professor Hanneek is merely a pre- 
cautionary measure. Whatever connection these 
men may have had with the German Govern- 
ment formerly, their work is now done, and their 
detention does not hinder the workings of the 
real spy system one iota. 

HOW THE SPY SYSTEM WORKS. 

It is difficult to distinguish between the work 
done in neutral countries by the secret diplomatic 
agent — the man who is engaged in fomenting 
disorders, such as I have described — and the spy, 
who is seeking military information which may 
be of future use. The two work together in that 
the secret agent reports to Berlin the names of 
inhabitants of the country concerned, who may be 
of use in securing information of military or 
naval value. It is well to remember, however, 
that the real spy always works alone. His con- 

273 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

nection with the government is known only to a 
very few officials, and is rarely or never suspected 
by the people who assist him in securing informa- 
tion. Here permit me to make a distinction be- 
tween two classes of spies : the agents or directors 
of espionage, who know what they are doing; 
and the others, the small fry, who* secure bits of 
information here and there and pass it on to their 
employers, the agents, often without realizing 
the real purpose of their actions. 

In the building of the spy system in America, 
Germans and German- Americans have been 
used. Business houses, such as banks and in- 
surance companies, which have unusual oppor- 
tunities of obtaining information about their 
clients — most of whom, in the case of German 
institutions in this country, are of German birth 
or descent — have been of service in bringing the 
directors of spy work into touch with people who 
will do the actual spying. 

The German secret service makes a point of 
having in its possession lists of people who are 
in a position to find out facts of greater or less 
importance about government officials. House- 
maids, small tradesmen, and the like, can be of 
use in the compiling of data about men of im- 
portance, so that their personal habits, their 

274 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

financial status, their business and social relation- 
ships become a matter of record for future use. 
These facts are secured, usually by a little 
"jollying" rather than the payment of money, by 
the local agent — a person sometimes planted in 
garrison towns, state capitals, etc. — who is paid 
a comparatively small monthly sum for such 
work. This information is passed to a director 
of spies, who thereby discovers men who are in a 
position to supply him with valuable data and 
who determine whether or not they can be 
reached. 

Now, just how is this "reaching" done? 
Mainly, I think it safe to say, by blackmail and 
intimidation. If from this accumulated gossip 
about his intended victim — who may be an army 
or naval officer, a manufacturer of military sup- 
plies, or a government clerk — the spy learns of 
some indiscretion committed by the man or his 
wife, he uses it as a club in obtaining information 
that he desires. Or he may hear that a man is 
in financial straits. He will make a point of 
seeing that his victim is helped, and then will 
make use of the latter's friendship to worm facts 
out of him. In this way, sometimes without the 
suspicion of the victim being aroused, little bits 
of information are secured, which may be of no 

275 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

importance in themselves, but are of immense 
value when considered in conjunction with facts 
acquired elsewhere. 

Ultimately the victim will balk or become sus- 
picious. Then he is offered the alternative of 
continuing to supply information or of being 
exposed for his previous activities. Generally 
he accepts the lesser evil. 

In this manner the spy system is built up even 
in peace times. The tremendous sums of money 
that are spent in this manner amount to millions. 
The quantity of information secured is on the 
other hand, inconceivably small for the most part. 
But in the mass of useless and superfluous facts 
that are supplied to the spies and through them 
to the government, are to be found a few that are 
worth the cost of the system. By the time war 
breaks out, if it does, the German Government 
has in its possession innumerable facts about the 
equipment of the army and navy of its enemy — 
and more important still, it has in its power men, 
sometimes high in the confidence of the enemy 
government, who can be forced into giving ad- 
ditional information when needed. 

Now, the moment that war breaks out, what 
happens? The German Government has dis- 
tributed throughout the country thousands of 

276 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

men and women who have legitimate business 
there ; it has its hands on men who are not spies, 
but who will betray secrets for a price either in 
money or security; it is acquainted with the 
strength and weakness of fortresses, various 
units of the service, the exact armament of every 
ship in the navy, the resources of munition fac- 
tories — in a word almost all of the essential 
details about that country's fighting and eco- 
nomic strength. It also knows what portion of 
the populace are inclined to be disaffected. And 
it is thoroughly familiar with the strategical 
points of that country, so that in case of invasion 
it may strike hard and effectively. 

What is must learn now is : 

First, what are the present military and naval 
activities of the enemy. 

Second, what are they planning to do. 

Finally, the German Government must learn 
the how, why, when and where of each of these 
things. 

That, with the machinery at its command, is 
not so difficult as it would seem. 

Here is where the value of the minor bits of 
information comes in. A trainman tells, for in- 
stance, that he has seen a trainload of soldiers 
that day, upon such and such a line. A similar 

277 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

report comes in from elsewhere. Meantime 
another agent has reported that a certain pack- 
ing house has shipped to the government so many 
tons of beef; while still another announces the 
delivery at a particular point of a totally differ- 
ent kind of supplies. Do you not see how all 
these facts, taken together, and coupled with an 
accurate knowledge of transportation conditions 
and of the geographical structure of the country 
would constitute an important indication of an 
enemy's plans, even failing the possession of any 
absolute secrets? Do you not suppose that 
weeks before you were aware that any United 
States soldiers had sailed for France, the Ger- 
mans might have known of all the preparations 
that were being made and could deduce accur- 
ately the number of troops that were sailing, and 
many facts of importance about their equipment. 
There is no need for the betrayal of secrets for 
this kind of information to become known. It is 
a mere matter of detective work. 

But mark one feature of it. These facts are 
communicated by different spies — not to a cen- 
tral clearing house of information in this coun- 
trry, as has been surmised, but to various points 
outside the country for transmission to the Great 
General Staff. They are duplicated endlessly 

278 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

by different agents. They are sent to many dif- 
ferent people for transmission. And even if half 
of the reports were lost, or half of the spies were 
discovered^ there would still be a sufficient num- 
ber left to carry on their work successfully. 

Germany does not depend upon one spy alone 
for even the smallest item. Always the work is 
duplicated. Always the same information is 
being secured by several men, not one of whom 
knows any of the others; and always that in- 
formation is transmitted to Berlin through so 
many diverse channels that it is impossible for the 
most vigilant secret service in the world to pre- 
vent a goodly part of it from reaching its 
destination. 

How that information is transmitted I shall 
tell in a moment. First, I wish to explain how 
more important facts are secured — the secret 
plans of the government, such, for instance, as the 
course which had been decided upon for the 
squadron which carried the first American troops 
to France. 

It is obvious that such facts as these could not 
have been deduced from a mass of miscellaneous 
reports. That secret must have been learned in 
its entirety. Exactly how it was discovered I do 
not pretend to know nor shall I offer any 

279 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

theories. But here, in a situation of this sort, 
unquestionably, is where the real spy — the 
"master spy," if you wish to call him so — steps 
in. 

Now, it is impossible, in spite of the utmost 
vigilance, to keep an important document from 
the knowledge of all but one or two people. No 
matter how secret, it is almost certain to pass 
through the hands of a number of officials and 
possibly several clerks. And . with every ad- 
ditional person who knows of it, the risk of dis- 
covery or betrayal is correspondingly increased. 
If in code, it may be copied or memorized by a 
spy who is in a position to get hold of it, or by a 
person who is in the power of that spy! Once 
in Berlin, it can be deciphered. For the General 
Staff and the Admiralty have their experts in 
these matters who are very rarely defeated. 

You may be sure that Germany has made her 
utmost efforts to put her spies into high places 
in this country, just as she has tried to do else- 
where. You may be sure, also, that she has 
neglected no opportunity to gain control over 
any official or any naval or army officer — how- 
ever important or unimportant — whom the 
agents could influence. That has always been 



280 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

her method ; nor is it difficult to see why it fre- 
quently succeeds. 

Imagine the situation of a man who in time of 
peace had supplied, either innocently or other- 
wise, a foreign agent with information which 
possessed a considerable value. It is probable 
that he would revolt at a suggestion that he do 
it in time of war — but with his neck once in the 
German noose, with the alternative of additional 
compliance or exposure facing him, it is not hard 
to see how some men would become conscious 
traitors and others would be driven to suicide. 

By a system of blackmail and intimidation the 
Germans have attempted to force into their ranks 
many people from whom they extort informa- 
tion that would now be regarded as traitorous, 
although formerly it might have been given out 
in all innocence. 

Undoubtedly it was for purposes of intimida- 
tion that von Papen carried with him to England 
papers incriminating Germans and German- 
Americans who had been associated with him in 
one way or another. And why did von Rintelen 
return to this country and aid this government 
in exposing the German affiliations of people 
who had no German blood in them? The obvious 
answer is that those people had balked at aiding 

2811 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

him in some scheme he had proposed. Therefore 
he made examples of them, with the double pur- 
pose of demonstrating to the United States the 
extent of German intrigue and of filling other 
implicated people with fear of the exposure that 
would come to them if they were not more com- 
pliant. 

Once in possession of secret information, the 
spy is faced with the necessity of transmitting it 
to Berlin. Here again, the spy who is a German 
would meet with considerable difficulty. He may 
mail letters if no mail censorship has been in- 
stituted; but these are liable to seizure and are 
not so useful in the transmission of war secrets 
as they were in informing his government before 
the war of more or less standard facts about the 
strength of fortifications and the like. He may 
use private messengers — as do all spies — but the 
delay in this method is a severe handicap. 

In sending news of the movements of troops, 
speed is the prime essential. Consequently he 
must communicate either by wireless or by cable. 
How does he do it? 

There are innumerable ways. There may be in 
the confidential employ of many business houses 
which do a large cable business with neutral 
countries men who are either agents or dupes of 

282 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

the German Government. These men may send 
cables which seem absolutely innocent business 
messages, but which if properly read impart facts 
of military value to the recipient in Holland, say, 
or in Spain or South America. It is not a dif- 
ficult matter to use business codes, giving to the 
terms an entirely different meaning from the one 
assigned in the code-book. Personal messages 
are also used in this way, as is well known. As 
to the wireless, although all stations are under 
rigid supervision, what is to prevent the Germans 
from establishing a wireless station in the Ken- 
tucky Mountains, for instance, and for a time 
operating it successfully? 

But in spite of all cable censorship, the spy 
can smuggle information into Mexico, where it 
can be cabled or wirelessed on to Berlin, either 
directly or indirectly by way of one of the neutral 
countries. Even in spite of the most rigid censor- 
ship of mails and telegrams this sort of smug- 
gling can be accomplished. 

When I was in the Constitutional Army in 
Mexico, I used to receive revolver ammunition 
from an old German who carried it over the 
border in his wooden leg. Could not this method 
be applied to dispatches? 

There are numerous authenticated cases of 
283 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

spies who have sent messages concealed in 
sausages or other articles of food. Moreover, 
the current of the Rio Grande at certain places 
runs in such a manner that a log or a bucket 
dropped in on the American side will drift to the 
Mexican shore and arrive at a point which can 
be determined with almost mathematical cer- 
tainty. 

I mention those instances merely to show how 
little of real value the censorship of cables and 
mails can accomplish. The question arises: 
What can be done? I shall try to indicate the 
answer. 

HOW TO GET RID OF THE SPY SYSTEM. 

I say frankly that I think it absolutely im- 
possible to eradicate spies from any country. 
Certainly it cannot be done in a week or a year, 
or even in many years. It is more than probable 
that the German spy systems in France and Eng- 
land are more complete to-day than they were at 
the beginning of the war. Three years ago the 
spies in those countries were made up of both 
experienced and inexperienced men. Now the 
bunglers have been weeded out, and only those 
who are expert in defying detection remain. But 

284 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

these are the only men who were ever of real use 
to Germany; and fortified as they are by three 
years of unsuspected work in these countries, 
they are enabled to secure information of in- 
finitely more worth than they formerly were. 
What is the situation in America? 

I have shown you the structure of that system. 
Let me repeat again that Germany has installed 
in this country thousands of men, whose nation- 
ality and habits are such as to protect them from 
suspicion, who work silently and alone, because 
they know that their very lives depend upon 
their silence, and who are in communication with 
no central spy organization, for the very simple 
reason that no such organization exists. There 
is no clearing house for spy information in this 
country. There are no "master spies." 

Do you think that the German Government 
would risk the success of a work so important as 
this, by organizing a system which the arrest of 
any one man or group of men would betray? The 
idea of centralization in this work is popular at 
present. In theory it is a good one. In practise 
it is impossible. By the very nature of the spy's 
trade, he must run alone, and not only be un- 
suspected of any connection with Germany now, 
but be believed never to have had such a con- 

285 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

nection. If the secret service were a chain, the 
loss of one link would break it. With a system 
of independent units, endlessly overlapping, 
eternally duplicating each other's work, they 
continue their practices even though half of their 
number are caught. 

Now with these men, protected as they are by 
the fact that not even their fellows know them, 
with their wits sharpened by three years of silent 
warfare against the agents of other governments 
and your own neutrality squad, the task of 
ferreting them out is an utterly impossible one. 
You cannot prevent spies from securing informa- 
tion. 

You cannot prevent the transmission of that 
information to Berlin, without instituting, not a 
censorship, but a complete suppression of all 
communications of any sort. 

But you can do much to counteract their 
methods by doing two things : 

I. Delaying all mails and cables, other than 
actual government messages. 

II. Instituting a system of counter espion- 
age, which shall have for its object the detection 
but not the arrest of enemy spies; and the dis- 
semination of misleading information. 

The war work of the spy depends for success 
286 



My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

upon the speed with which he can communicate 
new facts to Berlin. If all his messages are de- 
layed, his effectiveness is severely crippled. 

If in addition to that, all persons sending sus- 
picious messages anywhere are carefully 
shadowed; if their associations are looked up, it 
may be possible to determine from whom they 
are getting information, and by seeing that in- 
correct reports are given them, render them of 
negligible value to their employers. 

Public arrests of suspected men are worthless. 
Such disclosures only serve to put the real spies 
on their guard. But if the spies are allowed to 
work in fancied security, it will be possible to find 
out just what they know and the government can 
change its plans at the last moment and so nulify 
their efforts. 

Eternal vigilance, here as elsewhere, is the 
price of security. Germany has regarded the 
work of her spies as of almost as much import- 
ance as the force in the field. She has spent 
millions of dollars in building up a system in this 
country, whose ramifications extend to all points 
of your national life. And since upon this sys- 
tem rests all of her hopes of rendering worthless 
your participation in the war, she will not lightly 
let it fail. 

287 



l My Adventures as a German Secret Agent 

I toss aside my clippings and sit looking out 
into the New York street which shows such little 
sign of war as yet. Defeat ! That is the end of 
this silent warfare, this secret underground at- 
tack that has in it nothing of humanity or honor. 
I think of Germany, a country of quiet, peaceful 
folk as I once knew it, bearing no malice, going 
cheerfully about their work, seeking their destiny 
with a will that has nothing in it of conquest. 
And I think of Germany embattled, ruled by a 
group of iron men who see only their own am- 
bitions as a goal — who have brought upon the 
country and the world this three-year tyranny of 
hate. 

What will be the end? Will the war go on, 
eating up the lives and honor of men with its 
monstrous appetite? Or will there be peace — a 
peace that will bring nothing of revenge or op- 
pression ; that will carry with it only a desire for 
justice to all the peoples of the earth — that will 
kill forever this desire for conquest which now 
and in the past has borne only sorrow and blood- 
shed as its fruit? Will the peace bring forget- 
fulness of the past, in so far as men can forget? 

That would be worth fighting for. 

THE END. 



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